


A Grudge Not Held

by SimplyChristian



Series: A Grudge Not Held [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Combat pragmatism, Exploring characterizations in an alternate timeline, F/M, For Want of a Nail, Friendship, Gen, Gin is nicer but still a troll, Happy Ending, Hinamori struggles and grows, HitsuHina Ship Tease but not confirmed pairing, Hitsugaya is much colder than canon but not heartless, Married Couple, Not a fix-fic, Omake at the end of chapters, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Recommended on TV Tropes, Some Humor, Somebody finally notices Sasakibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 111,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimplyChristian/pseuds/SimplyChristian
Summary: AU.  Three men never find Rangiku.  Because they never find Rangiku, she is never harmed.  Because Rangiku is not hurt, she does not cry.  Because she does not cry, Gin does not swear vengeance.  Because Gin does not swear vengeance, he never joins Aizen.  This is a tale how Gin's allegiances remain with the Gotei 13, and the consequences it produces, both good and bad.  Cross-posted from Fanfiction.net.
Relationships: Ichimaru Gin/Matsumoto Rangiku
Series: A Grudge Not Held [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918528
Comments: 81
Kudos: 50





	1. The Nail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snippets of Gin and Rangiku’s life over the hundred years they spend together in the Gotei 13, ending with the beginning of the Soul Society Arc.

**AO3 Note:** I’ve given thought to posting my stories onto this site for a while now, but never got around to it... until now. I wanted to at least get the first chapter out today, on the anniversary of the day I originally published it, and I intend to upload the rest of the story over the next couple weeks, with the aim of one chapter every day or two.

To those of you who have followed my work on Fanfiction.net, I welcome you back. For better or worse, I have made no revisions or edits to the story from FFN, so the story you see here is the same as it was on the other site. The only additions are going to be some running commentary and thoughts I have on each chapter.

Also for those who have read this story before, I will be posting the main plot of this story (chapters 1-16) as one work, with the couple bonus chapters (chapters 17 and 18 on the FFN version) as a separate work in the same series.

**Originally published on 9/10/2013 – Seven years ago… to the day**

* * *

Warning: since this fic will go up to the end of the Deicide Arc, there will be plenty of spoilers. And I will be including facts and information learned in the Fullbringer Arc and the Thousand Year Blood War Arc as well, if relevant to the plot. This is your final spoiler warning.

**Foreword:** Ichimaru Gin is my overall favorite “Bleach” character, for his trickster personality and his undying devotion to Rangiku. Like all the other Gin fans, I wished he had survived his encounter with Aizen in the Deicide Arc, if not succeed in his assassination attempt. There are plenty of fanfics out there in which Gin does survive, and even a few where he is victorious over Aizen, but I’ve only come across one or two stories where Gin never joins Aizen in the first place. So today on September 10, Gin’s birthday, I publish the first chapter in in a saga of What Could Have Been, had our favorite silver fox not taken the path of vengeance, or needed to. And so, without further ado, we proceed into an alternate timeline.

* * *

“KA- _chew!_ ”

Another absolutely adorable sneeze escaped from young Rangiku, despite her best efforts to hold it in.

When the girl had woken up that morning sniffling and sneezing, Gin had ordered her to stay put and rest. Out of contrariness and stubbornness, she had rejected his diagnosis and the bed rest order. In her opinion, the shack that the two children had taken up residence in was good only for sleeping in and providing shelter during snow and rain. On a sunny if a bit chilly day like this, Rangiku wanted to go outside and enjoy the weather.

But Gin was quite insistent that she take it easy.

“I told ya,” her best friend (a title Rangiku was seriously reconsidering at the moment) chided her. “Yer sick, an’ ya need to stay here an’ rest.”

“I am not sick,” the girl stubbornly retorted. She was immediately invalidated by a “Ka- _chew!_ ”

“Either yer sick, or someone’s talkin’ ‘bout ya a lot.”

“You’re talking to about me right now!”

“No, I’m talkin’ _to_ ya; there’s a difference.”

“What’s the- the- KA- _chew!_ ” Sniff. “Difference?”

“Ya need to stay here an’ rest,” Gin ignored her question and repeated his prior instruction. “If ya don’t do what I say, I’m gonna have to punish ya.”

“You aren’t my mother, so- KA- _chew!_ ” Sniff. “So you can’t tell me- dang it, Gin!”

In that one moment she closed her eyes to sneeze, he had slipped out on her. Again. And he neglected to tell her where he was going. _Again_.

Rangiku sighed and lay back down. She immediately noticed how her body welcomed the action, and grudgingly admitted to herself that maybe Gin was right, and maybe she _did_ need some rest. While it would have been nice to go outside and enjoy the late autumn weather before snow came, there really was nothing that she absolutely _must_ do today. That was her final thought as her body systems slowed down, and she sank into a catnap.

As Gin explored the nearby forest in search of his favorite persimmon tree, while also being sure to keep an eye out for firewood, the boy heard a commotion and slid into a nearby bush for cover. He peeked out between the branches and saw a group of men walking not too far away. Thankfully, they had not noticed him. Rather than take this opportunity to flee, however, Gin instead chose to follow them, and to learn what threat they might represent.

He knew who they were: shinigami. He had seen all types of shinigami pass through these forests. There were the good ones that slew Hollows and were kind to the residents of the Rukongai, but those were few and far between especially this far out into the districts. The usual shinigami were decent at best; they did their job and little more, keeping justice but otherwise paying little attention to the poorer classes of Soul Society.

And then there were guys like the group Gin saw now. They were men who were nothing more than thugs, and bullied the weaker souls just because they felt like it.

The three men he saw now were only a little different in that they did not torment the residents of the Rukongai for mere pleasure. They were on a mission of some sorts, attacking people seemingly at random and stealing parts of their souls. For what reason, Gin did not know or care. What did concern him was that the victims of these particular shinigami often ended up dead, the very essence of their spirit stolen from them.

With these thugs roaming so close to their neck of the woods, Gin was very glad that Rangiku was staying home today.

He gave idle thought to seeing if he could find a way to kill one or more of the hunters. Gin doubted that anyone would miss them, and it would mean that less nasty people to worry about in the future.

He dismissed the idea after a moment’s thought. He didn’t want to leave Rangiku alone any longer than he had to, since she was sick right now.

However, the idea that Gin could kill one of those shinigami gave rise to another brainstorm. If _he_ , a random peasant of the Rukongai, could kill _them_ , fully trained shinigami, then why did Gin and Rangiku have to hide every time those men and others like them showed up? Out here in the Rukongai, it was survival of the fittest. What made him fit enough to survive was his intelligence, and Gin knew that both he and his sole friend had enough spiritual power to require food to survive. Didn’t that mean that they had enough power not to be afraid of thugs like the ones roaming the forests of the Rukongai? The only problem was that they lacked the knowledge as to how to make use of that power. And everyone knew that the only place you could learn stuff about spiritual power was the Seireitei.

Tucking that thought to the side for now, Gin resumed his search for food, and finally located the grove. After he had gathered an armful of persimmons and a decent amount of kindling, he decided to return to the shack. Since the persimmons were fresh off the tree, he would not be able to dry them to his liking, but they were better than nothing.

Gin arrived at the shelter, and left the sticks in the small pile he had collected next to the small structure. Then he ducked into the entrance and checked how Rangiku was doing.

His smile turned smug when he saw the golden-haired girl gently napping on the floor. Quietly, he put down the persimmons in a pile by one of the walls, and ducked outside once more for another errand.

Since Rangiku was sick, she needed fluids to drink in addition to rest and food. The river was not that far away, but it would be rather inconvenient for her to walk there as often as she needed. So Gin decided he would take the liberty of acquiring some bowls or a pitcher or some other water container.

After he had procured the needed materials and filled them with water, he returned to the shack. This time, Rangiku was awake, and she greeted him with, “KA- _chew!_ ”

“I see yer still ‘not sick,’” Gin noted smugly as he entered the small shelter with a pitcher of water and a couple of bowls in hand.

“Where’d you go?” Rangiku sniffed, choosing to ignore his smart-aleck remark.

“I jus’ went out to get some food an’ water.”

“You never tell me where you go.”

He busied himself with their lunch arrangements, resolutely not looking at her. “Does it matter?”

“Yes! What if something happens to you and- and- KA- _chew!_ ”

“Don’t worry, Rangiku. I can take care o’ myself,” Gin assured her as he poured water into the two bowls, and set one next to her. “By the way, some nasty folk have been wanderin’ a bit close to here, so we’ll need to lay low.”

“You’ve already made me stay in while I’m sick,” she protested. “If you want me to lay any lower, you’ll have to get a shovel and bury me underground!”

“If ya keep complainin’ like that, I jus’ might take ya up on that.”

“But I hate staying in here! It’s so boring and dull!”

“Better borin’ than dead.”

“I hate you.”

“No, ya don’t.”

“KA- _chew!_ ”

“Ya always know what to say, don’t ya, Rangiku?”

“Shut up.”

Gin only gave her an impish smile in return as he handed her a persimmon to eat. Somewhat mollified by the offering, Rangiku threw him a half-hearted glare before she took a bite out of her meal. A comfortable silence settled between them as the two friends ate their lunch.

“Rangiku, I was thinkin’ earlier,” Gin started a conversation after he had finished his first piece.

“What?”

“Why do we gotta run an’ hide every time someone nasty comes along? I betcha we both got more reiatsu than most people ‘round here.”

“But we don’t know how to use it.”

“So we learn.”

“How? KA- _chew!_ ”

“Easy; we become shinigami.”

Rangiku paused as she thought over his words, and asked, “Why?”

“Why not? They got a good place to live, so at least we don’t have to worry ‘bout starvin’.”

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Wouldn’t be fun unless there was a lil’ risk.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Didn’t you just say that it was ‘better borin’ than dead?’”

“That’s different. If we become shinigami, then we’ll be strong ‘nough that the actual chance o’ us dyin’ will be lower than if we stay where we are.”

The golden-haired child pondered the thought for a minute longer.

“Sure, let’s give it a- KA- _chew!_ ” Sniff. “…give it a try,” she finished.

“After yer not sick anymore.”

* * *

“Congratulations, Ichimaru Gin,” the headmaster intoned as he handed over a scroll bound in a black string. “You have completed the entire Academy course in one year, the fastest graduation in history. Because of your accomplishment, you have been given the privilege of choosing which division to join. While your exact rank is up to the captain, a seated officer position is guaranteed. So, which division is most suited to your abilities and interests?”

The young prodigy knew his answer immediately. He had researched the captains and their divisions after he realized that he could complete his education in an unprecedented single year. With a record like that, Gin suspected they would have accepted him into the legendary and very exclusive First Division if he had asked for it. He had no interest in doing so, of course, for the simple fact that they were all a bunch of stiffs, in his opinion.

The Second Division appealed to him, because sneaking around was something he was good at. There was even the bonus of having a captain with a reputation for being laid-back and fun. But in the end, he concluded the Second was not for him; if he wanted to spend the rest of his life leaping from the shadows and stabbing people in the back, he would have stayed in the Rukongai. And then there was the fact that he wanted to stay with Rangiku. While it would be another few years until she graduated, he was determined to be in a division they would both like. One full of assassins was _not_ the place for his best friend, so the Second was discounted from his options.

Aside from making sure Rangiku would be nearby, the primary factor in Gin’s decision was the personality of the captain. For starters, he wanted the person to be fun. He had no desire to suffer under a dry stickler for rules who wouldn’t know a good joke if it danced in front of them and recited the history of Soul Society. That’s why the First, Sixth, and Ninth Divisions were off his list. 

The second factor in his choice that was equally important as the first was education. Gin wanted to actually learn how to fight, and more importantly, how to win. Life in the Rukongai had taught him that there was no honor in battle. It was a fight for survival, and nothing else mattered other than getting out alive. The Eleventh would be a good place to make sure one got training on how to be strong, but Gin did not like to rely on brute strength. He knew that even if he became a captain one day, there would always be someone stronger.

So the solution was to find a division where he could learn how to use strength, speed, and intelligence to win. Again, the Second Division came to mind, but there were other options, such as the Fifth or Thirteenth. He gave some thought to the Twelfth Division, but elected not to on the grounds that their captain was too new. While it would be interesting to witness firsthand how this new captain would handle his position, Gin thought it a better idea to settle on a captain with a more solidified reputation. The Seventh was like the Eleventh in that it emphasized strength, but it was also more balanced, and the captain had a decent reputation.

However, the place that appealed to him the most was…

“The Eighth Division, under Kyōraku-taichō.”

* * *

“So, you wish me to teach you the art of war?”

Gin nodded at Kyōraku’s solemn request for confirmation.

“Why?” the captain asked.

“We’re shinigami, ain’t we?” the young Fifth Seat replied. “So we should do the best we can to get stronger an’ better.”

The colorfully clad captain stroked his stubble. “True, but not many come to me to ask for lessons. After all, I’m not the best fighter in the Gotei 13.”

“Quite true,” Lisa agreed bluntly. “It goes without saying that both Yamamoto-sōtaichō and Unohana-taichō could wipe the floor with you.”

“What about the other captains?” Gin asked knowingly.

“None of them would win a fight against Kyōraku-taichō,” the lieutenant answered with the exact same inflection as before.

“Oh, c’mon Lisa-chan,” Kyōraku chuckled. “Do you really think that poorly of your superiors?”

“I am simply stating the facts,” Lisa said. “The real reason you’re reluctant to give Gin lessons is because you’d rather chase women, drink sake, or sleep.”

“Now, wait a minute…” the captain protested.

“You will receive your first lessons from Kyōraku-taichō tomorrow an hour after lunch,” Lisa informed the younger shinigami.

“Uh, shouldn’t I say ‘yes’ to Gin’s request first?”

“He is a prodigy who graduated from the Academy in a single year, and he is asking _you_ for lessons,” the lieutenant said. “You do _not_ want him to squander his talents.”

“I suppose not,” Kyōraku admitted with a wry smile. He heaved a despondent sigh and clambered upright. "Between the two of you, if I'm not careful, you might actually turn me into a respectable captain."

"I shudder at the thought," Gin smiled.

* * *

Gin found her in the mess hall of the Eighth Division. He knew it was her first day here, and that the reserved young girl would probably be eating by herself.

The Fourth Seat had not seen as much of Rangiku as he had wanted during the past five years, between his duties in the Eighth and her studies at the Academy. They still met regularly, although weekly get-togethers became biweekly, and then monthly, and so on. He had at least managed to witness the graduation ceremony, but had not been able to talk with her face-to-face until now.

But as he skimmed the room for a certain strawberry-blonde head, he could not seem to find her. That puzzled him; he knew this was the right place to look for her, and it was lunch hour, but he could not pick out Rangiku among the people who seemed to be sitting alone.

“Please let me fetch your food, milady!”

“Don’t! He’s a greedy pig who’d eat it before it got here! _I’ll_ get it for you!”

“You liar!”

Gin took note of a crowd of young men at one table, and decided to meander over to investigate the commotion.

“I have here an excellent batch of sake! Please have some!”

“I’ve tasted that swill of yours! Here, this brand is _much_ better!”

“Calm down, boys!” a feminine voice sang, so familiar it also made Gin’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “I’m very grateful for _all_ of your help!”

No doubt about it. And she had seemingly found new ways to have fun. A brief feeling he would eventually identify as “jealousy” churned his insides. Then he dialed his smile to its Mischievous setting and then cleared his throat very audibly.

The men gave a glance over their shoulder at the noise, and then turned back to the object of their adoration. A second later, belatedly realizing who it was behind them, they all simultaneously stood at attention and faced their superior officer.

“Good morning, Fourth Seat Ichimaru!” they all chorused.

The only person who did not get up was the one the men had all been fawning over. She was sitting at the table, and was now looking curiously at what had ripped her fan club away from her. Upon recognizing the person, Rangiku’s face lit up with a sunny smile.

“Gin!” she cried happily, and instantly jumped up to hug him.

The silver-haired teen was not normally the touchy-feely type, but he could make an exception for Rangiku. As he returned his childhood friend’s embrace, Gin could see the crestfallen looks on the other men at the sight before them.

“Good to see ya, too,” he said as gently released her from his arms. “Mind if I join ya fer breakfast?”

“Of course not!” Rangiku replied brightly.

“You two,” Gin pointed at the pair of food bearers he had first heard. “Get us some breakfast.”

“Yes, sir,” they acknowledged despondently.

“An’ you two,” he gestured to the two drink volunteers. “Get us some water.”

“Yes, sir,” they answered in the exact same tone as the other two men.

The highly ranked officer then flopped down in a seat and turned his back on them. “The rest o’ ya, enjoy yer breakfast.”

“Thank you, sir,” the other men bowed sadly and dispersed.

“Water?” Rangiku grimaced. “What about the sake?”

“Later,” Gin said. “This is yer first day at the Eighth; it wouldn’t be a good idea fer ya to show up drunk.”

“But the captain does!”

“This ain’t his first day, though,” he countered. “Once you’ve been captain fer a few centuries, I’ll let ya drink sake in the morning.”

“Hmph,” Rangiku pouted.

Their conscripted waiters brought them breakfast, and Gin dismissed them with an offhand wave.

“So, how ya likin’ the Eighth so far?” he asked after his first bite.

“Great!” she chirped happily.

“Yer welcome,” Gin smiled at her.

“Huh?” she looked at him questioningly.

“Who do ya think made sure ya got assigned here?”

Rangiku blinked and regarded him with a blank expression on her face.

“Well, I _am_ the Fourth Seat o’ this division,” Gin pointed out. “An’ the captain’s pretty easy-goin’, so with his help, I was able to pull a few strings to get ya here.”

She looked at him for a moment more before she finally smiled and said, “Thank you, Gin.”

* * *

“She needs someone to comfort her,” Rangiku argued as they both walked down the corridors of the Eighth Division. “And Captain can’t do it right now because with Lisa gone, he’s actually doing the paperwork!”

“Well, I ain’t stoppin’ ya,” Gin replied.

“But right now you’re the second-highest officer in the Eighth,” she continued, “so it’s part of your duty to check up on her.”

“Yer better at comfortin’ people than I am,” he protested.

“Which is why I’m coming with you,” Rangiku said. “Listen, Gin, at the rate you’re climbing the ranks, I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up captain someday…”

“Aw, thanks, Rangiku…”

“Shut up and let me finish. As I was saying, if you end up captain, you need to learn how to relate to people in ways other than playing pranks on them.”

Gin sighed as they arrived at the door where the youngest member of their division resided. He knew that Rangiku was deliberately leading them here, but he had decided to let her; he felt that this was one of those times where she was _not_ going to give up.

His determined friend knocked on the door and called out, “Nanao-chan, are you in?”

There was a pause before a girl’s voice timidly asked, “Who’s there?”

“It’s Rangiku and Gin,” she answered. “Can we come in?”

Another short pause before the resident answered, “Okay.”

Rangiku slid the door open and entered the room, Gin close behind her. The latter shut the frame behind him, and they looked at the room’s small inhabitant. She was sitting on her futon, hugging a large book to her chest.

“How are you feeling?” the elder girl asked gently as she sat down next to her much smaller teammate. Gin leaned back against the wall as he crossed his arms, and watched the show with a puzzled feeling.

“I’m fine,” Nanao answered.

“Are you sure?” Rangiku pressed softly for confirmation. “You know that if you want to talk, Gin and I are here to help.”

The bookish girl looked at her visitors cautiously, before she said softly, “I just miss Lisa.”

“We all do,” Rangiku replied. “She was special to you, wasn’t she?”

“She was like a big sister,” Nanao confirmed. “Every month she would come and read to me. The night she left was when we were supposed to read.”

“Oh,” the blonde girl said sympathetically.

Then Rangiku noticed out of the corner of her eye that Gin had not changed his facial expression since they entered the room. Because of how long she had known him, she could tell that his smile was sadder than normal, but Nanao did not have that same benefit.

“Gin!” she hissed at him.

“What?”

“Show some sensitivity and stop smiling!”

“It’s all right!” Nanao rushed to say.

“It’s _not_ all right,” Rangiku disagreed as she glared at her friend.

“It really is!” the younger girl insisted. “It’s worse when he doesn’t smile!”

Gin and Rangiku both looked at Nanao in interest and surprise, respectively.

“Why do ya say that?” the boy asked in a tone that indicated he was honestly curious at the answer.

“When you’re smiling, it’s like everything’s normal for you, like you can take care of it,” the girl explained. “When you’ve stopped smiling, it means something really _bad_ has happened.”

“Like what happened to Lisa?” Rangiku said.

“Yeah,” Nanao nodded. “People shouldn’t be smiling because of what happened to all those people, not just Lisa, but if it’s Ichimaru-san, I’m okay with it. As long as he’s smiling, I know everything’s going to be all right.”

Since her head was bowed as she said this, Nanao did not see Gin and Rangiku sharing surprised looks.

Before either of them could respond, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in, Kyōraku-taichō,” Gin said.

“You know it’s kind of creepy how you can always tell I’m coming,” the captain chuckled lightly as he entered the room, and then turned to the girls. “Hey there, Rangiku-chan, Nanao-chan.”

“Hey,” Rangiku gave back a brief smile of greeting.

Nanao had jumped to attention when she saw who had entered the room. “I’m honored by your presence, Kyōraku-taichō!”

“How ‘come ya didn’t stand at attention fer me?” Gin asked.

Their young hostess paled when she realized that she had forgotten to show respect for her Third Seat, and stuttered, “I-I’m sorry, Ichimaru-san! I-!”

“Calm down,” the trickster smiled in amusement. “I was jus’ teasin’ ya.”

The little girl seemed to relax slightly at the fox’s words, but she still seemed uneasy.

“You don’t need to be so formal,” Kyōraku chuckled, and then turned a little more serious. “How are you holding up?”

“Fine,” Nanao answered as she cautiously sat back down. “Ichimaru-san and Matsumoto-san were visiting.”

“That’s nice of them,” the older man smiled. “Do you mind if I borrow Gin for a moment? There’s something I want to talk to him about.”

“If Kyōraku-taichō needs him, you don’t need to ask me!” Nanao rushed to say.

“It’s polite to ask,” the captain replied, and nodded to Gin to follow him.

After the two men had left, Rangiku turned to her female companion with a knowing smirk that sent tremors down Nanao’s spine.

“ _You_ ,” the grinning girl announced mischievously, “have a crush on Gin.”

“What?!” Nanao exclaimed with a red face. “No, I don’t!”

“’Oh, Ichimaru-san!’” Rangiku sang in a falsetto. “’I _know_ everything’s going to be all right as long as _you’re_ smiling!’”

Nanao's glasses appeared to have fogged up, and she hastily pulled them off. “That’s not what I meant! I mean, that’s not what I said!”

“Just admit it, kid, you like him.”

“No, I don’t, I swear!” Stubbornly Nanao began polishing the lenses with her trailing black sleeve.

“Admit it!”

“I don’t, please believe me!”

“Admit it!”

“I promise he’s all yours!”

“Admi- wait _what_?”

Rangiku suddenly had a feeling that the conversation had turned the tables on her, and she did _not_ like it. It was made all the worse by the fact that she had both initiated and pursued the topic.

“He’s yours,” Nanao repeated innocently, and then she finally looked up from cleaning her glasses with slight confusion, she continued, “Isn’t that why you were asking?”

“Of course not!” Rangiku protested (and she was _not_ blushing).

“Then why are you always with him?” the girl questioned.

“He’s my best friend! That’s all!”

Nanao placed her glasses back on her face, and then put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. “I think you’re in denial,” she finally decided.

“DE- _nial_?!” Rangiku shrilled in a whisper; she was trying to restrain herself from waking the neighbors, but it was hard when Nanao was spouting pure nonsense.

“’A refusal to grant the truth of a statement,’” the bookworm defined helpfully.

“I know what it means! And I’m _not_ in denial!”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Ichimaru-san likes you back. But if you want, I could ask him how he feels about you…”

“ _Don’t. You. Dare._ ” Pause. “That’s an order!”

* * *

“Gin, are you _sure_ this is a good idea?”

“Hey, Kyōraku-taichō said he was countin’ on me to make sure he got work done.”

“I don’t think this was what he had in mind…”

“All the more reason! Now, on ‘three.’”

A sigh of resignation was followed by, “ _Fine_.”

“One. Two. Three!”

Two buckets filled with icy water were splashed onto the dozing pink-clad captain, and that was the cue for Gin and Rangiku to take off running towards the Eighth Division’s main office.

“You’d think a lieutenant on his first day would be nicer to the man who gave him that rank!” Rangiku hollered as they sped through the corridors.

“He didn’t give me this badge to be nice!”

“Good thing!”

The pair ran into the captain’s office, and then stopped dead in their tracks. Standing in front of them and dripping cold water onto the floor was Kyōraku. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and he was looking down at them with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow.

“And here I was thinking you would come up with something more original than a bucket of water,” the captain chided.

“It was quick an’ easy, an’ did the job right,” Gin justified. “If ya want creative, I’ll do that next time, ‘kay?”

“I do,” Kyōraku nodded. “If I’m interrupted from my beauty rest and forced to do paperwork, then I’d prefer it be done in an inventive manner.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the new lieutenant saluted playfully.

* * *

“Bye-bye, Yama-jii,” Gin called as he and his captain left the office.

The old general merely grunted at the impetuous young man; far less of a reaction than the trickster had been hoping for.

After they were in the hallway, Gin turned to his captain and asked, “Why wasn’t he upset when I called him ‘Yama-jii?’”

“Because he long ago stopped caring how people refer to him as long as they obey his orders,” Kyōraku smiled. “Most people think that since he’s the leader of the shinigami, he would prefer to be called by his rank. That’s probably true, so I wouldn’t advise spreading that bit of information around; it’d be better if his soldiers call him more familiar names of their own initiative.”

* * *

Nanao walked through the halls of the Eighth Division, her destination firmly in her mind. While she was the youngest member of the division, complete with the apparent age of an adolescent, she sought to validate her position by performing her duties to the best of her abilities. And right now, those duties meant she needed to deliver a message to her lieutenant.

She stopped in front of the door to the vice-captain’s office and went to her knees in the proper position for showing respect for the Second Seat. Nanao knocked once and placed her fists on the ground, keeping her eyes down.

“Ichimaru-fukutaichō!” she announced. “I have a message for you!”

When silence was her only reply, she repeated her statement. Once again, air empty of words greeted her.

Was he not present? No, a quick look with her spiritual senses told her that the lieutenant was definitely inside, as was the Fifth Seat.

She risked sliding the door open. Nanao knew it was not the most proper course of action, but she had learned that in the Eighth Division, people followed the example of their captain and were fairly laid back concerning the more formal aspects of regulations. She saw no reason to act differently, and considering she was on good terms with both the people she detected inside, she took the bold action of opening the lieutenant’s door.

Nanao almost fainted from shock at the sight that greeted her.

Fifth Seat Matsumoto was lying on her back on Lieutenant Ichimaru’s desk, and on top of her, giving her a very _passionate_ kiss, was the owner of the aforementioned desk himself.

While she had known that the two had (finally) become an official couple recently, it was one thing to be informed of something, and quite another to see its vivid proof.

The romantically inexperienced brunette could only stare in stunned fascination as the couple, oblivious to everything except each other, continued to lock lips.

Nanao’s brain restarted when she noticed that their hands were starting to wander to _inappropriate_ places.

Rather than interrupt her superiors’ private moment, she shut the door as quietly as she could. Even though they should not be kissing while on duty, Nanao was too embarrassed to announce her presence (it wasn’t fair how _they_ were the ones caught kissing on duty, and _she_ was the embarrassed one). Red faced and flustered, she decided that the message was not _that_ important, and could wait to be delivered until later. She also declaratively decided that there was a reason rules and regulations were in place, and she intended to follow them to the letter from then on. It would lead to less mental scarring for her in the future.

* * *

“Of all the places to go on vacation, and you suggest _here_?”

“Why not?”

Rangiku threw up her hands in exasperation, encompassing the locale in the same gesture. “We’re in the wilder regions of the Rukongai! This isn’t usually what a girl imagines for a romantic evening.”

Gin simply smiled and sauntered past her. “Well, ya could’ve said ‘no.’”

“I’m still trying to remember how you convinced me in the first place.”

“I think it’s good fer us.” He paused beside a tall tree and patted its trunk, bending in as if to examine the bark. “It’ll show us how far we’ve come.”

With a defeated sigh, she followed. Gin and Rangiku hiked through the Sixty-Fourth District of the Rukongai, and kept an eye out for familiar landmarks they had not seen in over fifty years.

“And to celebrate our accomplishments, we make love in our old shack?”

“Well, if ya insist…”

Rangiku snorted, and then her expression turned pensive.

“It’s weird, thinking about how much has passed since we were last out here,” she admitted. “We’ve become shinigami, you’re a lieutenant and just got Bankai, so you’ll make captain soon, I’m a Third Seat…”

“…Who will be my lieutenant when I’m captain,” Gin interjected.

“…And then… there’s… us,” she finished, self-consciously twirling her shoulder-length hair. Rangiku inhaled through her nose, and exhaled through her mouth to calm her jittery nerves. “It’s all so new, so big, I can’t believe we’re…”

“Married?”

“I mean, how many shinigami actually do marry, aside from the nobles?” she asked.

“We’re the first I’ve heard of,” Gin said, then putting his hand on her shoulder, he pointed off to the right. “There it is.”

Sure enough, the old shack where the newly married couple had once spent their childhood still stood, miraculously intact. It was smaller than Rangiku remembered, and years of neglect left it in even worse shape than it was in when she and Gin lived in it. It was a wonder as to how it remained standing.

As they contemplated how both the people and the scenery had changed over the past few decades, Gin moved his hand down from her shoulder to twine with hers. A light smile appeared on Rangiku’s face, and she curled her fingers around her husband’s hand.

“All right,” she sighed. “Let’s go make love in our old shack.”

“If ya insist.”

* * *

The new, light weight of the haori was resting quite comfortably on Gin’s shoulders as the doors to the captain’s meeting room opened before the newly promoted silver shinigami.

“Ichimaru-taichō,” the old general on the other side of the room said as Gin entered the room. “Take your place with your fellow captains.”

The new captain of the Third Division sauntered to the end of the row, and stood next to Aizen, who gave him a friendly smile as he passed. The captain-commander tapped his cane once to announce the commencement of the meeting.

“First order of business: the welcoming ceremony for our newest member,” he began. “As you know, the captain’s position for the Third Division has been vacant for some time. Yesterday, I in addition to three other captains held the Captain Qualification Exam to determine if he was worthy of this position. We deemed his personality and abilities acceptable. As such, the lieutenant of the Eighth Division, Ichimaru Gin, is now the commanding officer of the Third Division.”

The ceremony continued as planned, and its conclusion, Gin formally announced his choice of lieutenant. The recipient surprised no one. Ichimaru Rangiku came forward, hardly able to suppress her smile, and accepted the arm badge from First Lieutenant Sasakibe Chōjirō. The vibrant brightness of her expression prompted the elder man to smile in return, and he murmured a quiet but warm, “Congratulations” to her as she set the insignia of her rank in place.

After the meeting had concluded, Yamamoto called, “Ichimaru-taichō and Ichimaru-fukutaichō, you will stay.”

Mildly confused, the two obeyed, and after the last of the other captains and lieutenants left, the captain-commander began. “I do not need to remind you that your new positions will require more responsibility from you.”

The recently promoted pair did not speak, as they knew their commander still had more to say.

“And I have no issues with a captain being married to his lieutenant,” the general continued. “ _However_.”

“Knew there was a ‘however’ comin’,” Gin muttered to his wife. While Rangiku wanted to warn him to keep quiet, it still made her smile

Yamamoto glared from his nearly closed eyes, and the other captain looked back innocently through his similarly nigh-shut lids.

“ _However_ ,” the captain-commander growled as soon as he was sure the fox would not interject again, “I fully expect that you do not let each other become a distraction from your duties.”

“Of course not,” Rangiku assured him.

“Therefore, I _fully_ expect to receive paperwork from the Third Division, _on time and completed_.”

Both Ichimarus grimaced at the prospect of the increased workload their new rank would incur.

“Am I clear?” Yamamoto demanded.

“Yes, sir.”

“Sure thing, Yama-jii.”

“Good. You are dismissed.”

* * *

Rangiku stood to the left of her husband as they faced the seated officers of the Third Division. She knew that with the absence of both a captain and a lieutenant had severely hampered the Third’s performance, and she could tell by the hopeful looks on their subordinates’ faces that they were quite glad to see them. However, more than a few were sporting more cautious looks, doubtless because of _who_ the pick for their captain was; Gin’s reputation preceded him, after all.

“Which one o’ ya is Third Seat Kira Izuru?” Gin began.

“I am, sir,” a blond man in the front row stepped forward in response.

“Get up here an’ stand next to me,” the captain ordered.

With a face full of mild confusion, Kira moved to Gin’s right side.

“While Rangiku is my lieutenant,” the captain explained, “yer the guy who’s been with these people all these years, so yer the guy who’s gonna tell me all the secrets of the Third Division.”

Rangiku smiled at her husband’s shrewd maneuver. Captains were the sole and absolute authority in their divisions, and they chose one person as their personal assistant, or as they were known by their official title, lieutenant. Since the top two ranks were so tightly knit together, the gap between them in terms of authority was far narrower than the gap between lieutenant and Third Seat. By declaring Kira as a person who would stand by his side, as a figure with only marginally less authority than a lieutenant, Gin had demonstrated to his new division that he intended to lead them sincerely and with the best of his abilities.

Her husband may still be somewhat lacking when it came to empathy, but he definitely knew how to lead.

* * *

“So who’s this?”

Rukia was brought out of her musings by the man she had just been studying. She saw that he was now openly looking at her, and she felt as if she were a rabbit sighted by a fox. Rukia could not truly put her finger on it, but there was something… _off_ about this silver-haired captain.

“This is my sister, Kuchiki Rukia,” her adoptive brother introduced formally. “Rukia, this is Ichimaru Gin, the captain of the Third Division.”

She bowed to the waist in respect of the other superior officer.

“It is an honor to meet you,” she said, and hoped that her manners were acceptable to her noble lord brother. She had yet to learn all the intricacies of social etiquette, but so far it seemed like she had managed to live up to whatever standards he held her to.

“Pleased to meet ya,” the fox grinned. “I see bein’ stiff is a family trait, though.”

“I apologize if I offended you, Ichimaru-taichō,” Rukia said quickly.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it,” Ichimaru chuckled lightly. “I was just teasin’ ya. Both ya an’ yer brother got the same humorless genes after all.”

“She is not a blood relative,” Byakuya corrected. “We recently adopted her into the Kuchiki clan.”

“Oh? Ya wouldn’t be able to tell by lookin’ at her, standin’ an’ speakin’ all proper-like,” the serpentine captain said. “So, Rukia-chan, where d’ya come from?”

“The Rukongai, sir,” she answered, and hoped that she did not offend Byakuya by mentioning her lowly origins.

“No kiddin’!” Ichimaru said enthusiastically. “Same here! Nice to run into a fellow survivor.”

How was she to respond to that? Fortunately, Ichimaru continued on without waiting for her to reply.

“So ya see, I’m livin’ proof that anyone can make it here in the Gotei 13. I came from the Sixty-Fourth District, an’ look at me now: captain of a respected division, an’ married to a beautiful woman!”

Rukia mentally gave her condolences to that unfortunate female.

“An’ already, yer doin’ well fer yerself, gettin’ adopted into a great noble house! Who knows, maybe one day ya could have a division of yer own,” Ichimaru continued.

“I very much doubt that, Ichimaru-taichō,” Rukia said.

“An’ modest, too. Kuchiki-taichō, ya sure know how to pick ‘em.”

“Do you have any serious business with us, Ichimaru-taichō?” Byakuya asked coldly.

Gin put a finger to his chin as if giving the matter serious consideration, then answered, “Nope.”

“Then, if you will excuse us, we will take our leave now.”

Rukia followed in her brother's wake after they gave their bows and departed. She could not bring herself to look back at that man, nor could she shake the horrible suspicion that if she did, it would be to find he was still watching her with those seemingly closed eyes and unnerving smile.

It was well that she did not. Because he was.

* * *

“Who’s this, Rangiku?”

Shūhei went stiff at the sound of the unfortunately familiar voice of Captain Ichimaru.

“Ah, Gin! This is Hisagi Shūhei! He’s the new lieutenant for the Ninth Division!” Rangiku introduced cheerfully. “Hisagi-san, have you met Gin yet?”

“We have not been formally introduced before, but it’s an honor to do so now,” Shūhei bowed to the superior officer, doing his best to keep the nervousness out of his voice. He had not been attempting anything inappropriate with Rangiku, but it was common knowledge that Captain Ichimaru was not the most mentally stable person in existence. Who knew what the man would consider “inappropriate” regarding his wife?

Or was he overthinking this? After all, he was hardly the only person who had eyes for beautiful woman, but Shūhei would never consider propositioning her, considering her status as married. There were nasty rumors about what happened to those who _had_ , though.

“Rangiku, mind headin’ on? Hisagi an’ I need to have some man-talk.”

“Okay, but please don’t break his mind.”

Shūhei's head snapped around to regard her in disbelief, even as the captain responded, “I’ll do my best.”

Rangiku pecked her husband on the lips and walked on, thus leaving Shūhei alone with Ichimaru Gin.

“I know that ya think my wife is beautiful,” the silver-haired captain began, and the scarred lieutenant gulped. “An’ I know that ya think that I’m here to threaten ya an’ make sure ya don’t do anythin’ naughty with her.”

Shūhei tried to stammer out his denial that he would do anything inappropriate to such a respected and off-limits beauty, but being stared down by this menacing figure was making it difficult to talk.

“But don’t worry, I’ve never killed a guy fer lookin’ at her wrong,” Ichimaru told Shūhei, and it certainly sounded to the younger man like he was _trying_ to be reassuring.

Then the captain leaned in close, that smile growing ever wider, and said, “I jus’ help Rangiku bury the bodies.”

Shūhei’s jaw dropped. The captain took that as his cue to exit stage left, and clapped him on the shoulder as he passed. The shivering lieutenant wondered if he would ever find out if Ichimaru was joking or not.

* * *

_For the crime of bestowing shinigami powers to a living human, Kuchiki Rukia has been sentenced to execution via the Sōkyoku twenty-five days hence. This is the final decision by the Central Forty-Six._

In their office in the Third Division, Gin and Rangiku looked at each other after hearing the message from the hell butterfly.

“Poor Rukia-chan,” the former vagabond shook his head in dismay, and his smile was tainted by sadness.

“It was surprising to hear that the Central Forty-Six had ordered her execution,” Rangiku agreed as she paused in filling out a form. “I wonder why they thought she deserved the death penalty.”

“’Cause they’re jerks.”

“Well, that’s a given, but I’m surprised they would have the guts to kill off someone from the Kuchiki clan without a second thought.”

“Kuchiki-taichō didn’t look like he cared much,” Gin told her. “Though he never looks like he cares ‘bout anythin’.”

“You ran into him?”

“Kenpachi an’ I did, right after he told Rukia-chan they were gonna execute her.”

Rangiku stopped working and snapped her head at her husband. “You left Zaraki and Kuchiki in the same room together?”

“Don’t be silly,” Gin corrected her without looking up from his paperwork. “We were standin’ on a walkway.”

“Oh, of course. And that will make sure those two would behave,” she said sarcastically.

“Don’t worry, I pulled Kenpachi away when things got a lil’ heated,” Gin assured her.

“…You pulled Zaraki Kenpachi away from a fight?”

“Yep.”

“I thought only Unohana or Yamamoto could do that. Or Yachiru, if she wanted candy badly enough.”

“It wasn’t that hard. I just tied him up.”

There was silence in their shared office for a time. Then, “…You tied him up.”

“He wasn’t happy ‘bout it.”

Rangiku stared at her husband for a few moments longer, looking for any sign that he was pulling her chain. After not detecting anything, she said, “Gin, every time I’m starting to think you’ve finished doing the impossible, you do something to top it.”

“Anythin’ to keep life excitin’ fer my Rangiku.”

She smiled, but they both sobered when they remembered the original topic.

“I’m gonna miss Rukia-chan,” Gin said mournfully with that same sad smile.

“I wish there was something we could do to at least make sure she lived,” Rangiku agreed. “But if the Central Forty-Six ordered an execution for a noble from one of the Four Great Houses, they’re definitely not going to lessen her sentence because of anything we might say.”

“We could kill ‘em,” he suggested.

“Don’t even joke about that.”

Gin turned his head to her, and his eyes came open fully. “Ya think I’m kiddin’?”

“Yes.” Her reply was less an answer to his question, and more an order for him to behave.

* * *

**Author’s Note** : This will be a Gin-centric fic, but I will be exploring other scenes and perspectives that have been changed in this timeline.

This is not meant to be a fix-fic (except for a couple of spots where I think Common Sense is _sorely_ needed), where Gin’s presence is a Cure-All for the Gotei 13’s problems. While there are a lot of benefits of having Ichimaru Gin remain loyal to Soul Society, there will also be downsides. Some of these consequences will be because of changed choices on account of this alternate timeline, while other occurrences will simply result from the Butterfly Effect, and _could_ have easily happened in canon, but did not.

FYI: I have already written the entire story out, so you don’t have to worry about this fanfic ending up dead. I will be releasing a new chapter every week or so.

Also note this: any canon scenes that do not appear in this story are unchanged.

Last but not least, I would like to give my thanks to **Tomas the Betrayer** for being the Beta to this story.

* * *

**Omake: Arrancar Encyclopedia**

Gin faced his audience with his lips in their usual position. He was not clothed in a shinigami uniform, but instead in the standard attire of those who inhabited Las Noches. He held a pointer in one hand, which he tapped twice in his palm as he started speaking.

“Hello, and welcome to the first episode of ‘Arrancar Encyclopedia!’” he greeted cheerfully. “Today, we’ll be talkin’ ‘bout alternate timelines.”

He stepped to the side and readied his pointer for when the slideshow would begin, but blinked in confusion as nothing appeared on the screen.

“No, no, no, NO!”

Gin’s confusion compounded when he heard the irked tone in Rangiku’s voice as she stormed onto the set.

“What is it, Ran-chan?”

“There will be NO Arrancar Encyclopedia in this fanfic!”

“Eh? Why not?”

“Because when you did these segments, you were a traitor to Soul Society! And more importantly, away from _me_! And since Gin will NOT be leaving the Gotei 13 this time, he will NOT be doing these silly Arrancar Encyclopedia bits!”

“Oh c’mon, it’s just fer fun!”

“I mean it, Gin! This omake series is OVER!”

With that declaration, Rangiku reached to the top of the screen and pulled down a blackdrop with “THE END” printed in white.

Gin popped up from the bottom of the screen and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll still be doin’ an omake at the end o’ each chapter. ‘Til next time!”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** It’s interesting looking over my writing from many years ago. Some elements I’m still satisfied with, while there are other bits that I think could use revising. For example, in this chapter, I think it would have been better to have had Gin creeping out the Third Division more before he got accepted, with Rangiku acting as a more sociable and approachable go-between, instead of Gin simply nailing it immediately as I had written here.

It also makes me feel a bit guilty when I look at how I kept saying I was working on the TYBW arc, but I’ve yet to make good on that promise. I do a little bit every now and then, but I’ve made very little substantial progress due to a number of factors including a busy real life and not really being in a “Bleach” phase.

Still, even if it’s at a snail’s pace, I refuse to give up on it, and I got inspired recently by a Bleach Fanfiction.net author darkling59, a good author I’ve had the privilege if having good conversations with, and your go-to writer if you like stories about Coyote Starrk. Like me, he went quite a few years without updating his stories, and then suddenly came back and managed to finish some of his works. I figured, if he can come back and do it, so can I.

And I figure, maybe uploading this and some of my other stories on AO3 will help motivate me. That, and the announcement that “Bleach” will return as an anime next year.

Also, as this is my first time posting a work on AO3, I would welcome suggestions as to what tags I should add to this story.


	2. Invasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story begins in earnest with the ryoka invasion of the Seireitei, and with each victory the invaders score, it increases the shinigami’s wariness.  
> Also, captains sneak up on poor little lieutenants.

**Originally published 9/17/2013**

* * *

Ichigo’s expression of amazement at the herculean strength of the West Gate guardian turned into puzzlement as the enormous man suddenly froze.

“What’s wrong, Jidanbo?” he asked as he walked up to the giant’s side.

A closer look revealed that the gatekeeper was trembling in terror, his eyes wide and focused in front of him. Ichigo turned to look to spot a single man walking calmly towards them. Just like the other shinigami the substitute had met (granted he could count that number on one hand), he was wearing a black shihakusho and hakama. But a notable difference to his uniform was the addition of a white haori.

The orange-haired teenager scoffed, unimpressed. “Who’s _that_ guy?”

“T-Tōsen Kaname, captain of the Ninth Division,” Jidanbo stuttered through his fear.

“What is going on here?” the newly arrived man inquired, taking in the scene before him.

Jidanbo bowed his head and explained, “I lost; a defeated gatekeeper must open the gate for the victor.”

“That is incorrect,” the captain rebuked him as he walked towards the trembling giant. “Your duty as a gatekeeper is to prevent invaders from entering the Seireitei, even if it means your life.”

“B-but, they spared my life when I lost,” Jidanbo protested.

“Then your crime is not only treason, but cowardice,” Tōsen pronounced without forgiveness, and then turned to the would-be invaders. “I will give you this one warning: retreat and I will let you go. I have no wish to spill blood, but if you force my hand, then I will demonstrate to you the consequences of your actions.”

“Nice offer,” Ichigo grinned ferociously. “But I got this rule against running away from guys who threaten to kill unarmed men. Here’s a better deal: run away now, and I won’t kick your sorry butt all the way home.”

“Ichigo!” Yoruichi barked at him. “Back off! We need to retreat!”

“What?” he replied incredulously as he turned to look at the sentient feline. “I can’t just run away; just give me a second to beat him and…”

“Are you Kurosaki Ichigo?”

The orange-haired substitute shinigami stopped midsentence and turned his attention back to his opponent.

“Uh, yeah, how’d you know?”

“Then that is all the more reason why I cannot let you enter,” Tōsen replied, and brought his zanpakutō up once more, this time with the blade raised vertically in front of his face. “Cry, Suzumushi.”

Ichigo froze for a moment as the noiseless scream hit his ears. He was still for a few more seconds before he fell to his knees and screamed as he held his ears at the pain. Jidanbo was not so fortunate; he had been knocked completely unconscious by the attack of the captain’s Shikai.

The giant toppled, and the massive gate began to descend upon both men.

“Sho!”

A simple but strong blast of kidō from the captain sent both of the helpless warriors into the air to land on the ground, one dead to the world and one who felt like someone had used his head as the clapper for a particularly loud bell.

Cries of alarm came from the other humans, and Uryū turned around just in time to see Tōsen depart without so much as a goodbye before the gate closed completely.

“Are you all right, Kurosaki-kun?” Orihime asked worriedly as she and the other two humans ran forward to check on their friend.

“They’ll be fine,” Yoruichi assured her. “Jidanbo is just unconscious, but he’ll have a headache when he wakes up like the one Ichigo is suffering right now.”

“What was _that_?” the mentioned human groaned as he shook his head in the attempt to clear his ears from the insistent ringing.

“A sound-based attack,” the cat answered. “You were able to resist its affects more because of your higher reiatsu. Jidanbo, on the other hand, didn’t stand a chance.”

“Is he…?” Ichigo asked in concern.

“He’ll be fine,” Yoruichi repeated patiently with the knowledge that the substitute probably had not heard the first reassurance due to the aftereffects of the sonic attack.

“What about the gate?” Ichigo looked at their port of entrance, only to see it had reunited with its old friend the ground. He cursed at their ill fortune.

“Don’t worry about it,” the cat informed him. “With Tōsen as your opponent, there was no other outcome. Just be glad that he was feeling merciful and only gave you a headache.”

* * *

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Gin apologized without true regret in his voice as he entered the captains’ meeting room and counted eleven other haori-clad people inside. While the more rule-abiding captains were giving him mildly annoyed looks, Gin did not become concerned about his tardiness in earnest until he noticed that Kenpachi was already there. The unofficial rule among the captains was that if you arrived after Kenpachi, you were inexcusably and tragically late. He noticed that there was still someone absent, and that person was usually reliable about attendance. “Where’s Ukitake-taichō? Somethin’ happen?”

“He’s on sick leave,” Tōsen answered from his position between the two lines of captains. Even if one allowed for the fact that captains were expected to keep a level of self-control, he seemed awfully calm about being called on for his actions at the West Gate.

“Again?” Gin’s smile dropped in genuine concern. “I hope he gets well.”

“Shut it,” Kenpachi barked impatiently. “I want to ask _this_ guy why he went off to play with some ryoka.”

“Okay, okay,” the silver-haired man chuckled easily, his smile returning to its normal position as he took in line his spot next to Aizen. “Ask away.”

“Like I just said,” the berserker captain continued, focusing his attention on Tōsen, “why’d you go off and fight ‘em? Actually, the better question is why you didn’t finish ‘em off.”

“Justice is the Path of Least Bloodshed,” Tōsen replied simply. “I gave the ryoka the option to retreat and cease their attack. Blood did not need to be spilt.”

While Gin knew that Tōsen had a fixation on “Justice” and “the Path of Least Bloodshed” (capitalization required), there was something off about his story. The reasons he gave were logical and consistent with his personality, but Gin had a feeling that there was another reason for the sparing of the ryoka.

“Don’t tell me you’re getting squeamish,” Kenpachi taunted.

“Just because I choose not to draw blood when there is no reason does not mean I will hesitate to kill when I have to,” the blind captain retorted. “Not all of us are mindless brutes.”

A stern tap on the floor by the captain-commander’s cane prevented a snarly rebuttal from the Eleventh Division captain.

“Tōsen-taichō, you should know better than to deal lightly with intruders, no matter their power level,” Yamamoto rebuked.

“I understand, Captain-Commander,” Tōsen submitted with a nod of his head.

Gin had to give points to the guy for not making any excuses on his actions.

Before anything else could be said, the alarm rang and alerted the captains that, once again, uninvited and unwanted guests were inbound.

“Intruders?” Aizen said with a level of surprise.

“Sounds like yer ryoka decided to come back,” Gin commented to the man on trial, his ever-present smile now attaining a mocking tone.

“An unwise decision,” Tōsen noted.

“Now are ya sorry for lettin’ ‘em go?”

“I am not. I warned them, and they failed to heed my words; their blood is now on their own hands.”

It was not a surprise to anyone when Kenpachi was the first to dash out of the meeting room, no doubt seeking to be the first one to fight the ryoka.

“Tch. It was unavoidable,” was Yamamoto’s only comment on the truculent man’s departure, and then addressed the rest of the captains. “This meeting is temporarily on hold; we will continue this discussion later, as well as Tōsen-taichō’s punishment. Now, get to your divisions!”

A chorus of affirmatives answered their general and the group of elites dispersed to exit the room.

However, Gin wanted to have one little chat with Tōsen before they ran off to their respective divisions.

“These ryoka sure got convenient timin’,” he noted as he stepped next to his blind peer.

“What do you mean?” Tōsen inquired.

“I mean jus’ as Yama-jii’s ‘bout to discipline ya, the alarm rings, and yer punishment’s postponed,” Gin explained. “That means if ya do well against these intruders, then Yama-jii might forgive yer little mistake at the West Gate an’ choose not to punish ya.”

An edge entered the rigid man’s voice, “I hope you are not insinuating that I have manipulated this attack on the Seireitei.”

“’Course not,” the fox replied easily. “Yer not that smart.”

“Ichimaru-taichō,” Tōsen said evenly, “if your intent is nothing more than to aggravate me, then please save it for when we are _not_ under attack from intruders.”

Without waiting for a response, the sightless captain strode off.

At the edge of his peripheral vision, Gin noticed Aizen giving him a subtle glance of his own.

“Ya got somethin’ to say, Aizen-taichō?” he asked as he turned towards him.

“Only that your humor was poorly timed,” the Fifth Division captain replied. “As Tōsen-taichō pointed out, we _are_ about to be invaded.”

“Ya really think he’d find my teasin’ funnier at any other time?”

“Probably not,” Aizen admitted with a slight smile. “Come on, let’s go before Yamamoto-sōtaichō scolds us.”

It did not escape Gin’s notice that Hitsugaya was giving him and Aizen considering looks as they departed for good. Whatever suspicions the little captain had about the pair of them, Gin was sure they would be incorrect. Still, it might be a little fun to tease the white-haired youngster’s paranoia.

Maybe some other time, after this invasion business was over and done with.

* * *

“Emergency Alert! Emergency Alert! Intruders in the Seireitei! All divisions take defense positions! Repeat…”

Kira Izuru jogged briskly through the streets, following only a few steps behind his captain.

“Look!”

The yell halted both officers, and they turned their heads in search for whatever had caught the attention of the caller.

Coming in from the west was a small bright light, appearing just a little larger than the morning star as it streaked through the clouds and towards the invisible walls of the Seireitei.

Kira gasped as he saw the light directly hit the Shokanmaku, and continued to push against the resistance. Which _should_ have been impossible, as anything that small _should_ have been destroyed immediately. He looked to his captain to gauge his reaction, but quickly realized the futility of that maneuver. As always, Hitsugaya’s face was as cold and as impassive as an iceberg. Even when faced with intruders doing what _should_ be impossible, that did not change now.

“They’re getting through,” Hitsugaya noted calmly. If he felt any surprise at this, it was not evident in his voice.

The blond lieutenant jerked his head back upwards with a start and saw that his superior was right. With a crackling of electrical energy and ripples across the anti-soul shield, the small sphere of light had succeeded in penetrating through the outer walls of the Seireitei.

A moment later, there was an explosion, and four orange streaks of light split off into different directions.

“So, there are at least four of them; that matches up with Tōsen’s report that there were five intruders who attempted to enter through the West Gate,” Hitsugaya continued to note coolly, and finally looked at his second in command. “Kira, alert the rest of the division; tell them to begin their patrols closest to where those ryoka land.”

“Yes, sir!” he confirmed, and set off to carry out his orders.

* * *

Gin had yet to come back from the captains’ meeting, so Rangiku took it upon herself to organize the Third in response to the ryoka invasion. She led her own personal patrol through the corridors of the Seireitei to intercept the invaders, and kept her eyes on the sky as they neared the light source above them. From the looks of the trajectory, it was very likely that one of the ryoka would land near their position.

“Get ready,” Rangiku commanded as she saw that the meteor-like object was rapidly closing in on them.

She and her subordinates stopped and put their swords into position, but just as the unidentified falling object was about to crash into them, it suddenly brightened and then disappeared.

Rangiku blinked in confusion at the unexpected lack of an enemy to fight.

“Did anyone else see a black cat in there?”

Judging by the “are you mad?” looks they gave her, she surmised they had not. Well, whatever it was, they needed to find it. While she could not detect any foreign reiatsu nearby, surely the invader (feline or not) could not have gotten far.

* * *

The reddening of the horizon alerted Rangiku that her patrol time was nearly at an end, much to her relief. Despite searching since the break-in at dawn, with only a thirty-minute break for lunch, she had no more luck in finding the ryoka than the rest of the Gotei 13 did. Then again, since everyone who _had_ encountered the ryoka ended up in the Fourth, perhaps luck _was_ on her side. With each new report that came in, the bar kept getting higher and higher as to determining the strength and power of the invaders.

Rangiku was just about to call an end to her patrol when she felt a familiar spiritual signature clash with a foreign one not too far away.

“Renji!” she gasped out, and then spun to face her subordinates. “Abarai Renji is in combat with the enemy! We have to get to him as quickly as possible!”

But by the time they arrived, the fight was already over. And to Rangiku’s shock and horror, it was not in her friend’s favor. Renji was lying face down in a steadily growing puddle of his own blood, and his spiritual pressure was dwindling by the second.

Two of her men rushed forward to check on the fallen lieutenant’s condition.

Rangiku realized that even after all the casualties they had suffered, the Gotei 13 had underestimated the ryoka. If they were able to beat Renji, one of the stronger lieutenants, in a fight, then that meant only the captains were able to stop the invasion now.

“It seems his opponent has escaped,” one of her men noted. “Should we follow?”

Rangiku focused her thoughts on the current situation. On the one hand, while the ryoka had indeed defeated Renji, she found it highly unlikely that it was an easy victory for him. Considering that the clash had ended only minutes before, the assailant could not have gotten far. If they pursued now, then it meant a greater chance of catching up with the invader and defeating him while still recovering from his battle wounds.

But that idea quickly ended after she sensed how Renji’s spiritual reserves were draining; he needed medical attention _now_.

“No,” she finally decided. “Prepare a stretcher, and take him to the nearest relief station.”

She did not even want to send an officer or two after the ryoka, because she knew that even if they caught up with him, it would end with their defeat. After all, if the intruder could defeat Renji and walk away without leaving too much blood behind for a trail, then that meant he was not heavily injured enough to fall before a couple of low-ranking shinigami. Rangiku supposed she could have pursued the ryoka herself, but decided that it might be a better idea to ensure Renji’s wellbeing first.

After they had ensured the safe transport of the patient, Rangiku dismissed her men. She stayed, not only because Renji needed someone to look out for him, but also because she felt two familiar shinigami fast approaching the relief station. Within seconds after her men had left, Kira and Hinamori rushed into the room.

“We felt Abarai-kun’s levels disappear!” the petite girl blurted out. “Is he all right?”

“He’s not dead,” Rangiku assured her. “But he is heavily wounded. However, I do think that he’ll survive if a healer tends to his wounds soon.”

“I’ll call the Fourth Division, and have them send an advanced relief unit,” Kira volunteered.

“That will be unnecessary.”

The three lieutenants froze as they heard the taciturn voice of Renji’s commanding officer. They turned to find Kuchiki Byakuya making his way into the room.

“Kuchiki-taichō?” Hinamori said inquiringly, as if she did not believe the words that had emerged from the noble’s mouth.

He continued as if she had not spoken. “Put him in a holding cell.”

“B-but he fought a ryoka by himself!” Hinamori protested.

“I will not hear excuses,” Kuchiki cut off her words. “To enter a fight alone means that defeat is utterly unacceptable. I have no need of a fool who does not comprehend that. He is an eyesore. Take him this instant.”

With his order declared, the lord turned and walked away.

Hinamori was incensed by the lack of regard for the lieutenant’s condition. Her fists clenched in fury, and impulsively she called out, “Please wait a moment! You make it sound like Abarai-kun-!”

“Don’t!” Kira snapped his arm up in front of her to prevent the girl from being insubordinate to the strict captain, who had merely stopped and turned his head after she had started protesting.

“Kira-kun…”

Rangiku could tell that the betrayed tone in Hinamori’s voice stung Kira, but the elder woman understood his reasoning; if he had not stopped her, she had no idea what Captain Kuchiki would have done to ensure the girl knew her place. If a condemned sister and unconscious lieutenant were any indication, the results would _not_ have been good.

“My deepest apologies,” Kira said as he bowed to the waist.

Reluctantly, Hinamori seemed to understand his intention, following his lead and forced out, “My deepest apologies.”

Rangiku was third in the procession as she bowed to the waist and repeated their statement of penance.

Satisfied that the lieutenants knew how to show the proper respect towards their betters, Captain Kuchiki left without another word.

After he was gone, the three of them straightened up, and Rangiku spoke first. “Now that he’s gone, let’s follow orders and take Renji to the holding cells…”

“But he’s injured!” Hinamori protested.

“…to the holding cells in the Fourth Division,” Rangiku finished with a smirk.

Kira and Hinamori blinked, and the latter smiled in relief at her exploitation of the loophole.

“Yes, but the Fourth is a bit far,” Kira pointed out. “I’m not sure if it would be a good idea to carry him all the way there, considering the state of his injuries. And since Kuchiki-taichō ordered us not to call them here…”

“Actually, I already sent the request,” Rangiku admitted. “I knew Renji would need major healing done, so I sent a hell butterfly to the Fourth as we transported him here.”

“So when Kuchiki-taichō told us not to…” Kira said hesitantly.

“He didn’t think we already had,” Hinamori chirped with relief.

“Very sneaky,” a new voice said in approval.

Rangiku yelped in surprise, and the trio of lieutenants turned to see Gin leaning against the wall as if he had been there all along.

“Gin!” Rangiku scolded, “How many times do I have to tell you not to surprise me like that?”

“But it’s so much fun,” he teased, pushing himself off the wall and joining the three vice-captains.

“You won’t think it’s fun if I die of a heart attack because you snuck up on me one time too many,” Rangiku growled.

“Well then, all I have to do is not sneak up on ya one time too many,” Gin smirked back.

“Excuse me, Ichimaru-taichō,” Hinamori hesitantly asked. “Why are you here?”

“Jus’ wanted to spend time with my beautiful wife,” Gin answered.

Rangiku tried to hold back a smile; she was not _quite_ ready to give up her glare on him yet, but his compliments eroded her desire to continue it

“Oh, an’ to make sure she don’t get into trouble fer callin’ the Fourth when Kuchiki-taichō told her not to,” he went on. “If he raises a stink, I’ll say that I called ‘em.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Rangiku protested.

“Yer a lieutenant,” Gin retorted. “He’s a captain. If ya do somethin’ he don’t like, Kuchiki-taichō can get ya into trouble fer insubordination. If I do somethin’ he don’t like, all he can do is throw daggers with his eyes. Got it?”

Rangiku nodded, and finally decided that her husband no longer deserved her glare.

“So, ya ready to go yet?” the silver captain asked his wife.

“Not yet,” she responded. “I want to make sure the healers get here.”

“’Kay,” he shrugged.

“Looks like Abarai got himself into some trouble.”

The three lieutenants jumped and looked at Hitsugaya, who had appeared behind their backs in the same silent, sudden manner as Kuchiki and Gin. With all the captains sneaking up on them, Rangiku would not have been surprised if Soifon decided to drop by and give them a heart attack before the night was over.

“Tōshirō!” Hinamori cried out, the most startled of the three lieutenants.

“It’s Hitsugaya-taichō, in case you’ve forgotten,” he coolly corrected. “Are you sure you want to address your superior in such an informal way?”

“Never mind that! More importantly, why don’t you captains make any noise when you walk?!” demanded a frustrated Hinamori, irked by the fact that this was the third time in so many minutes that she had been startled in such a way.

Gin, the only one unperturbed by Hitsugaya’s sudden appearance, took in the scene with amusement, but the arrival of this captain spooked Rangiku, as evidenced by the fact that her hand had dropped to her zanpakutō the moment she heard his voice.

On the surface, there were not that many differences between Kuchiki and Hitsugaya. They were both sticklers for the rules, kept a nearly emotionless mask on their face, and based on available evidence, they were almost completely heartless. But the fact of the matter was, Rangiku felt marginally safer around the noble than she did around the new prodigy. While both could be relied upon to uphold the law of the Seireitei, the former did it out of responsibility and pride in his noble duties. Hitsugaya, on the other hand, was a wild card to her.

She had to admit, Rangiku did not have a solid reason to fear the captain of the Tenth. His official record marked him as a powerful and efficient shinigami, and had indeed earned his haori despite his young age. His reputation among the lower ranks was a bit more ambiguous. Everyone in the Tenth claimed Hitsugaya as the best captain, but it was par for the course among the rank-and-file of each division to idolize their commanding officer. However, even they would admit that Hitsugaya seemed to care little for the lives of his men. Yes, he was by the book and ensured all the needs of the Tenth Division were tended to according to regulations, but it was all just cold maintenance.

None of the above reasons were sufficient enough to explain why Rangiku felt goosebumps every time Hitsugaya came near her. She wanted to pass it off as a side-effect of his icy reiatsu emissions, but no one else seemed bothered by it like she was.

True, Hitsugaya seemed to have a little soft spot for Hinamori, but despite Rangiku’s close friendship with the girl, she could not bring herself to like the creepy teenager.

* * *

_The Shinigami Women’s Association was holding an event where members would be “Nee-sans” to some of the new initiates for one week. Rangiku was partnered up with the Fifth Seat from the Fifth Division, a petite brunette by the name of Hinamori Momo. The “elder sister” was glad that she got this adorable sweetheart as her “little sister.” The two had hit it off immediately upon meeting each other, and now they were chatting excitedly with each other as Rangiku led Hinamori to some of her favorite shops._

_“Tōshirō!” Hinamori suddenly called out as she glanced to the side and caught sight of someone. She waved at the person enthusiastically, and Rangiku turned to examine the new arrival._

_The boy apparently named “Tōshirō” was short, serious, and holding a stack of paperwork under his left arm. And cute;_ very _cute. He was not cute as in, “I’d like to have a drink with this guy.” He was cute as in, “I want to snuggle up with him like he’s a teddy bear.” He was looking at the girl calling his name with mild annoyance._

_As the two girls walked up to him, he informed the brunette, “It’s Hitsugaya-fukutaichō now, Hinamori.”_

_That was when Rangiku glanced down to his arm for the first time and saw the badge denoting his rank._

_“I haven’t seen you at the lieutenant meetings before,” she said._

_“I was just recently promoted,” Tōshirō told the other lieutenant. “There hasn’t been a meeting for the lieutenants since my appointment yet.”_

_“Congratulations,” Rangiku smiled in an attempt to be friendly, but it fell flat at the white-haired youth’s icy composure. Still, she was not discouraged yet. “Ooh, it looks like someone needs a hug…”_

_The boy fixed her with a frozen glare, and all desire to hug the “cutie” went cold with it. Hitsugaya’s adorable appearance hid it very well, but now that he was being threatened with physical contact, Rangiku could now clearly see how his eyes held all the warmth of a polar winter. Those eyes warned her that if she so much as opened her arms to hold him, he_ would _retaliate._

_“But since you don’t seem to be the hugging type, I won’t,” Rangiku finished out loud._

_“Uh, Nee-san, you said the shop you wanted to show me was nearby,” Hinamori intervened nervously, obviously detecting the new tension in the air, and then said to Hitsugaya, “I’ll see you later, Tōshirō!”_

_The boy simply nodded at her and continued on his way._

_“Sorry about Tōshirō,” Hinamori apologized to Rangiku as they walked on. “He’s not really a people-person.”_

_“I noticed,” Rangiku commented dryly._

* * *

“What are you doing here anyway?!” Hinamori continued on, but then paused in her rant as her brain caught up with her words, and then asked in a calmer tone, “Why _are_ you here?”

“I came to see for myself the type of power we are facing,” Hitsugaya replied as he glanced over the condition of the unconscious redhead. “I had heard that at least one of the ryoka is strong enough to defeat a lieutenant.”

He paused and looked directly at Hinamori. “And that is why I’m now assigning Kira to be your escort.”

“Tōshirō!” she protested indignantly. “I can take care of myself!”

“Hinamori, this is common sense,” he rebutted. “We’re dealing with foes that can send lieutenants to the Fourth Division. It is simply not safe for anyone under the rank of captain to travel alone. This measure is as much for Kira as it is for you.”

“I’ll be with other officers of the Fifth, so it’s not like I’ll be by myself!”

“And are they here right now?

“No…”

“And do you believe that they are equal in strength to Kira?”

“No, but he still has duties in the Tenth, doesn’t he?”

“Kira,” Tōshirō turned to his lieutenant, “Which do you consider a higher priority: your normal duties in the Tenth, or the safety of Hinamori?”

“Hinamori-kun’s safety,” Kira replied without hesitation.

The girl threw up her hands in frustration. “Both of you are overprotective! I’ll be fine!”

“Hinamori, which rank is higher: captain or lieutenant?” the ice-haired officer now asked.

“Captain,” she answered reluctantly.

“Then, as _captain_ , I am ordering you to let Kira be your escort.”

“You’re hopeless,” Hinamori sighed, and then smiled slightly. “But I guess I should be thankful that I have two good friends looking out for me.”

Rangiku noted with amusement that Kira flushed at Hinamori’s words, and the optimistic part of herself which looked for the good parts in everyone thought it saw a similar hue painting Hitsugaya’s cheeks for a brief moment. More likely though, it was just her imagination.

“Ichimaru,” Hitsugaya turned his attention to the other captain, “We need to go; Yamamoto has called another emergency meeting.”

“ _Another_ one? This invasion is keepin’ everyone busy,” the silver captain lamented, and then pecked his wife on the lips. “See ya later.”

Rangiku gave her husband a parting smile as she nodded back, and the two captains left the room.

* * *

“You know he only gave you that excuse so you would agree to being escorted,” Kira commented after the two prodigies had left.

“He’s just being overprotective,” Hinamori protested, a slight pink coloring her cheeks. “Tōshirō’s always been cold towards most people, but once you get to know him, he’s really caring.”

Kira noticed Rangiku giving a slight roll of her eyes, but thankfully, she held her silence. He knew Hitsugaya was not one of her favorite people, but she rarely made an issue of it for her friends’ sake.

“I think it’s more accurate to say that he’s caring towards _you_ , Hinamori-kun,” he corrected wryly.

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” she frowned at him, not liking the knowing tone in his voice.

Rangiku let a slight smirk eerily similar to her husband’s come to her face at Hinamori’s defensive reply.

“It’s always cold around the captain’s office in the Tenth Division,” Kira explained. “Cold enough that everyone there wears extra layers of clothing beneath our uniforms. But it is always noticeably warmer whenever you visit.”

“You’re just imagining things; it’s never that cold when I come there, and I never feel it warm up.”

“That’s because he can feel your reiatsu before you arrive,” Kira replied. “And the rest of us can tell when you’re coming too, by the way the temperature rises. I bet if I borrowed a thermometer from Kurotsuchi-fukutaichō, that it would detect a difference of no less than five degrees Celsius between your presence and absence in the immediate vicinity of Hitsugaya-taichō.”

“I bet you a week’s worth of paperwork duties that you’re wrong.”

“Done,” Kira immediately agreed, a slight smirk curving his lips.

* * *

“Ya know,” Gin commented as he walked with Hitsugaya to the captains’ meeting room, “one o’ these days, ya gotta tell me what ya did to make Rangiku so scared o’ ya.”

“It’s not deliberate,” the white-haired captain replied in a manner neither defensive nor bothered. “It’s irrational on her part; I have no reason to hurt her.”

“An’ as long as ya keep up that attitude, I’m fine. A lil’ bit o’ fear will be good fer Rangiku; it’ll keep her on her toes, an’ stop her from gettin’ too lazy.”

“I’m surprised you would take that view. I would have expected you to be more protective of her.”

“I respect her ‘nough that I let her fight her own battles; I only butt in when I think she’s in over her head. This fear she’s got o’ ya is somethin’ she needs to take care of on her own. If I get between her an’ ya, then I won’t be doin’ her any good.”

“An interesting philosophy,” Hitsugaya noted.

“Ain’t so interestin’,” Gin argued. “After all, I ain’t always gonna be able to protect her, so I gotta make sure she can do it herself.”

Hitsugaya just let out an interested “Hmm.”

“I think ya understand,” the sly captain continued. “Since yer so protective o’ Hinamori-chan an’ all. Anyone with eyes can tell ya have a soft spot fer her.”

Toshiro did not even look at him when he spoke. “Then how do you know?”

“Hey, I got eyes!”

“You couldn’t tell by me.”

“Wow, Hitsugaya-taichō’s got a sense of humor after all! I gotta call Hisagi-kun so he can make that his big story in the next issue of _Seireitei Communications_!”

The smaller captain’s response was to narrow his eyes at his annoying company.

“Seriously, though,” Gin continued, “ya need to lighten up; I’ve noticed that ya don’t like to be friendly with too many people.”

“You are hardly a social butterfly yourself.”

“Whatcha mean? I love talkin’ to people.”

“Yes, but very rarely will you actually let anyone in and actually get to know you. Most of your interactions are superficial and involve ‘teasing’ others.”

Gin was quiet for a moment, and then let out what seemed to be a sheepish chuckle.

“Ya got me,” the smiling man admitted, “I like talkin’ to people, but I don’t trust ‘em easily.”

“Not a bad opinion to hold,” Hitsugaya said.

“Yeah, but ya can take it too far,” Gin said. “Everyone should have at least one person they can trust with anythin’. Ya know what I mean?”

For a moment, Hitsugaya did not reply, but the silver man knew he saw a glimpse of thoughtfulness in his features, despite his face retaining its icy exterior.

“I believe I do,” he finally answered.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** As you may have noticed, Hitsugaya is different than he is in canon. This is one of the consequences of the changed timeline I mentioned in the previous chapter, where Rangiku is Gin’s lieutenant instead of Tōshirō’s. In other words, she did not meet Hitsugaya until the scene described above, long after he became a shinigami.

And before you form any lynch mobs for me breaking up the Hitsugaya-Matsumoto team, just know that I didn’t like splitting them up any more than you did. But for purposes of plot, it had to happen. Still, I’m going to miss the sound of a youthful voice hollering, “ _MATSUMOTO!_ ”

My thanks to **haeye** for being the first to post a review on this story, and thanks to the other readers who have left a signed review: **The10Espada99** , **Sora Nadeshiko** , and **ebo372**

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide (with permission from Ichimaru Rangiku)**

“So,” Ichimaru said to Hitsugaya as they walked to the captains’ meeting. “We’ve both established that we don’t have many friends; why don’t we work on improvin’ our relationship?”

“That is unnecessary.”

“C’mon, jus’ a lil’ friendship exercise, to get to know each other better; what are ya scared of the most?”

“You first,” Hitsugaya countered. “What do _you_ fear?”

“The same thin’ everyone else fears,” the fox answered as they entered the meeting room. “Unohana’s smile.”

“What about my smile?”

“It’s beautiful!”

“Thank you, Ichimaru-taichō.”

It was a mystery as to how the woman maintained a tone of genuine gratitude for the compliment and yet still got the message across that she did not buy Ichimaru’s cover-up. With that Unohana moved sedately past him to take her position in line.

“And to think that I believed your given name came from your hair color,” Hitsugaya uttered quietly to the other prodigy, “when it’s actually for your silver tongue.”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** Ah, the Soul Society Arc. Back when we thought Aizen was a nice guy, we thought Byakuya was a heartless jerk, and shinigami were the main antagonists.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mention to FETHJJ GYHHJ for being the first to leave a comment. ~~~~


	3. Murder in the Court

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aizen is murdered, Hinamori charges at a captain, and Gin is a troll on patrol.

**Originally published 9/24/2013**

* * *

Rangiku, Kira, and Hinamori were all sitting by the unconscious Renji’s side when a messenger arrived to inform them of the wartime special orders from Yamamoto.

“I’d better get back to my division,” Rangiku said as soon as the messenger left. “And you two should as well.”

“Yes,” Kira agreed, and stood up.

Hinamori gave a guilty glance to Renji.

“He’ll be fine,” the blond assured her. “The Fourth’s healers will keep a close eye on him.”

The girl nodded and followed her friends out the door.

“Good luck, you two,” Rangiku told them before they split up. “Don’t run into any ryoka.”

“Why didn’t you insist on escorting Rangiku-san, too?” Hinamori asked as they went towards the Fifth Division.

“First of all, because Hitsugaya-taichō made your safety the priority,” Kira started. “And second, the Third is not that far away; she’ll be fine. And lastly, Rangiku-san is just as strong as Abarai-kun, and she’s far less reckless to boot. She has better sense than to get in a fight she isn’t sure she’ll win.”

“I still say that I can take care of myself,” Hinamori pouted lightly.

“And Hitsugaya-taichō was not convinced by your arguments,” Kira reminded her.

“That’s because he’s overprotective,” she complained, and pointed an accusatory finger at him. “And so are you!”

“Staying by your side during a time of invasion is not overprotection,” he rebutted calmly, despite the prosecuting digit being jabbed in his direction. “It is simply a precautionary measure.”

He paused, and a smirk appeared on his face. “And consider yourself lucky that the ryoka are only powerful enough to defeat a lieutenant; if they get any stronger, Hitsugaya-taichō would probably never let you out of his sight.”

“Hitsugaya-taichō is very protective of you, isn’t he?”

Despite the warmth of the comment, both lieutenants jumped as Aizen announced his presence without warning behind them.

“Aizen-taichō, not you, too,” Hinamori whined as she held her hand to her rapidly beating heart.

“Hinamori-kun?” he asked in mild confusion.

“First Kuchiki-taichō, then Ichimaru-taichō, and then Tōshirō, and now you!” she ranted. “Is it a requirement for captains to sneak up on poor little lieutenants and scare them out of their wits?”

“No, sorry I startled you two,” he apologized, but did not quite succeed in holding back an amused smile. He looked at Kira, “So Hitsugaya-taichō ordered you to escort Hinamori-kun?”

“Correct,” the younger man confirmed, and ignored his friend’s mutterings of “overprotective” under her breath.

“Thank you for looking after her,” Aizen said graciously to the dutiful friend. “And give my thanks to your captain as well, for thinking of Hinamori-kun’s safety.”

“I will,” he replied.

“Since I’m sure you have other things to attend to, I will let you go now,” the captain said with polite dismissal.

“If I might suggest, Aizen-taichō,” Hinamori smirked mischievously, “I think Kira-kun should stay with us. After all, since the ryoka are capable of defeating lieutenants, it simply would _not_ be safe for anyone below captain-level to be out alone at night. And Tōshirō _did_ say that the escort was for Kira-kun’s safety as well for mine.”

Kira gave her a very flat look, wondering when exactly she had gained that impish streak of hers. On gut instinct, he put the blame on Ichimaru; _both_ of them.

Aizen smiled and agreed, “Good thinking, Hinamori-kun. Kira-kun, you should stay with us; we’ll escort you back to the Tenth.”

“Yes, sir,” Kira relented, and sent another _look_ at the petite girl. She simply smiled back at him, sweetness and innocence etched into her face. The last time he had seen a look like that, he had been confronted by a Yachiru asking for candy.

“How is Abarai-kun’s condition?” Aizen inquired as they walked through the corridors of the Seireitei.

“The healers say he’ll be fine, now that he has medical attention,” Kira answered, and gave up his silent chastisement of his Academy friend.

“It’s a good thing Rangiku-san was there,” Hinamori said. “She was able to get word to some people from the Fourth before Kuchiki-taichō came and told us not to.”

“She disobeyed a captain?” Aizen cocked an eyebrow in curiosity, but not quite in judgment.

“It’s not like that!” she rushed to explain. “Kuchiki-taichō just told us to take Abarai-kun to a holding cell, and Rangiku-san suggested the holding cells in the Fourth Division!”

“Besides, the official report will state that Ichimaru- _taichō_ was the one who requested the healers,” Kira added calmly.

“I’m glad,” Aizen said with approval. “Abarai-kun is a good officer, and I can’t think of anyone who would be glad to see him die.”

“Except Kuchiki-taichō,” Hinamori grumbled.

“Hinamori-kun,” Kira quietly reprimanded her.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true!” she snapped back.

“You two are free to speak your mind when you’re with me,” Aizen permitted. “I assure you, Kuchiki-taichō will not hear your opinions of him from me.”

“But still, even if we don’t like Kuchiki-taichō’s decisions, it’s not our place to question them,” the blond said cautiously.

“He was going to let Abarai-kun _die_!” Hinamori protested vehemently. “And I can understand _a little_ how Kuchiki-taichō might be miffed that his lieutenant lost a fight, as it would upset is oh-so-special pride, but why deny him healers? Why wasn’t a holding cell enough for him?”

“It is possible that Kuchiki-taichō underestimated the extent of Abarai-kun’s injuries,” Aizen reasoned, and continued before Hinamori could voice her skepticism. “At the captain’s meeting, Kuchiki-taichō made a motion for harsher punitive action against Abarai-kun. Don’t worry, the motion failed, but I do not think that he would have done so if he believed his lieutenant would be dead in the morning.”

“I guess so,” she admitted, and then asked, “Were you one of the captains who opposed the motion?”

“Indeed,” Aizen affirmed. “As I said before, Abarai-kun is a good man, and a great asset to the Gotei 13.”

“Out of curiosity,” Kira supplicated, “how did Ichimaru-taichō and Hitsugaya-taichō react to the motion?”

“Hitsugaya-taichō abstained, stating that the affairs of other divisions were not his concern,” the captain answered.

“He said that right after he made Kira-kun be my escort?” Hinamori asked incredulously, and then growled, “ _Ooh_ , that hypocrite! When I see him again, I’m going to have _words!_ ”

Aizen just smiled in amusement at his lieutenant as she muttered darkly under her breath, and continued to answer Kira’s question. “Ichimaru-taichō was also one who opposed Kuchiki-taichō’s proposal, but he did not really elucidate on his reasons. Why do you ask?”

“Ichimaru-taichō was the one who offered to cover Rangiku-san’s actions as his own,” the lieutenant of the Tenth explained. “And I was wondering…”

He paused in his question, and tried to find the proper way to put his inquiry into words.

“How far his charity went,” Aizen finished after he had noticed Kira’s hesitance. “I can understand your curiosity; Ichimaru-taichō is an unpredictable man.”

Both lieutenants chuckled nervously and nodded in agreement. “Unpredictable” was probably the kindest and most charitable description of the fox’s personality.

“How has the Tenth faired during the invasion?” Aizen asked Kira.

“We haven’t lost as many as the Eleventh,” the blond man answered. “And fortunately, we haven’t had any deaths yet.”

“Same here,” Hinamori said. “It’s like the ryoka don’t want to kill anyone. I wonder why.”

“I don’t know,” Kira shrugged. “But it doesn’t matter; they are still the enemy, and they have attacked us. Therefore we need to eliminate them.”

“I guess,” his colleague frowned. “Still, I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” the solemn lieutenant agreed. “But war is something you _shouldn’t_ like. It encourages us to end fights as quickly as possible, and to make us hesitate from starting a battle in the first place.”

“Who told you that?” Hinamori asked.

“Ichimaru-taichō, although not in so many words,” he explained. “I may be the lieutenant of the Tenth Division, but I learned how to fight in the Third.”

“Here’s the main office,” Aizen noted.

“Thank you for taking care of us,” the younger man bowed.

“It’s no trouble,” the captain replied. “Have a good night.”

“Good night,” Kira returned, and entered the building.

“I’ll walk you back to your quarters,” Aizen said to his lieutenant after Kira was gone. “I don’t think Hitsugaya-taichō would ever forgive me if I let you go by yourself during the invasion.”

“Only if it’s not inconvenient for you,” Hinamori responded quickly.

“It isn’t,” he reassured her. “After all, one of the duties of a captain is to ensure the well-being of his subordinates.”

Hinamori beamed at her captain, and chirped a “Thank you.” One of the things she loved most about Captain Aizen was his concern about those who served under him. Especially with Captain Kuchiki’s apathy towards Renji fresh in her mind, her own captain’s warm actions and kind words shined even brighter to her.

As they walked back to the barracks, the two senior officers of the Fifth Division spent time on idle chatter and updates on the Fifth Division’s condition since the invasion had started.

They arrived at Hinamori’s door, and Aizen smiled, “Good night, Hinamori-kun,” as he slid the door open.

“Good night, Aizen-taichō,” she said back to him warmly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her, and walked away.

“You, too,” she replied, shutting the door. The repeated anxieties of this day encouraged Hinamori to seek out her futon quickly, where she soon fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

* * *

Hinamori reluctantly stirred from her slumber as her clock’s chime roused her. She gave a generous stretch and looked at the time. Still an hour before she had to leave for the lieutenant’s meeting later that morning. Reluctantly, she extracted herself from the comforting warmth of her blanket, and got ready for the new day.

After she got dressed and prepared, Hinamori did not really have much on her mind as she calmly walked to the meeting. She was near her destination when she heard something that reminded her of a leaky faucet dripping water into a tub. Irrepressible curiosity made her detour to investigate the unknown sound.

The girl stopped in place when she saw a puddle of blood on the floorboards. Her eyes slowly trailed upwards to discover the source of the crimson fluid.

And when she saw the reason for the sanguine stains, Hinamori screamed.

* * *

A wail of anguish brought the lieutenants out of the meeting room and towards the cry’s source. The first on the scene found Hinamori looking upward with a face that matched the pain of her shriek. As they set their eyes on what she saw, they too understood her reaction.

There was no need to ask what had brought her to this state. For there, impaled on his own sword high on the wall, hung the corpse of Captain Aizen Sōsuke.

“Aizen-taichō…” Hinamori said softly, walking stiffly forward a few steps, “No…”

She took two more unstable steps forward before she fell to her knees and screamed, “AIZEN-TAICHŌ!”

“What’s going on?”

The dumbstruck lieutenants turned around to see Captain Hitsugaya approaching, appearing as cold as ever. Upon setting sights on Aizen’s corpse, he simply raised an eyebrow and said, “Oh.”

Hinamori turned around slowly, and looked at the newly arrived taichō. Her mind was in shambles, completely lost from the shock of her captain’s death. With all coherent thought in disarray, the girl acted on gut instinct and emotional impulse.

She launched herself at Hitsugaya. The captain only had a moment to react before she wrapped her arms around his chest, and broke down sobbing. The other lieutenants stared as the glacier of a shinigami stood awkwardly for a moment. Then he relaxed and gently put an arm around the crying girl.

“Kira, call for the Fourth Division to get Aizen’s body down from there,” Hitsugaya ordered. “I’ll take care of Hinamori.”

“Yes, sir,” the blond lieutenant replied, and the white-haired captain walked away, half-carrying his old friend.

“I don’t know what I find more incredible,” Hisagi said after they were out of earshot. “The fact that she chose _him_ as a shoulder to cry on, or the fact that he _let_ her cry on his shoulder.”

“I don’t know what she sees in him,” Rangiku shuddered. “The kid scares me.”

“That ‘kid’ is a prodigy and a captain,” Kira interjected tersely as he prepared a hell butterfly. “Of course he should scare you.”

“I know, but he doesn’t scare me like the other captains do,” she replied. “There’s something about him that just makes me want to spend the rest of my days hiding in a desert.”

“I would’ve thought that you’d be used to scary captains, considering who you married,” Iba remarked.

“Hey, Gin’s not that bad once you get to know him!”

“While Ichimaru-taichō’s creepy, I don’t think he’s as bad as Hitsugaya,” Hisagi agreed. “At least with Ichimaru-taichō, we know he has a heart to go along with that creepiness.”

“Please keep in mind that this is _my_ captain we’re talking about,” Kira warned as he let the message flutter away to the Fourth Division. “And shouldn’t you be sending hell butterflies to your own captains?”

* * *

Tōshirō quickly took Hinamori back to her quarters with a few strides of his shunpo. After their arrival, he softly sat her down on her bed. He was about to let go when she clutched the front of his robes tighter.

“I’m just going to get you some water,” he stated. “I’ll be right back.”

The only response he got was an even tighter grip on his attire.

Tōshirō sighed softly as he realized that she was not letting go anytime soon. He sat down next to her and resumed holding her. He held on for a few minutes, and simply let the grieving waif have time to expend her emotions before he spoke again.

“Hinamori.”

His gentle call received no answer.

“Hinamori.”

This time the voice was sterner, but yet still without the usual chill present in his words. And like the first time he spoke her name, there was no response.

“ _Hinamori_.”

It was the definite and absolute tone of command that finally snapped the girl out of her trance and brought her to attention.

“Shiro-chan, Aizen-taichō’s dead,” she said. Her voice cracked at the last word.

“I know,” he replied, “And I know how much you cared about him, but you must get ahold of yourself.”

“How can I control myself when he’s never going to be there for me again,” she sobbed.

“Because you are a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, Hinamori. You have responsibilities to your division, doubly so now with Aizen gone. How do you think he would want you to act if something happened to him? Would he prefer you to weep uncontrollably, or would he rather that you take charge and make sure the rest of the people under your command continued performing their duties?”

She looked at his face. The tears still stained her blotched cheeks, but new trails were no longer being blazed as she saw the hidden message in her old friend’s eyes.

_I am still here for you_.

Hinamori sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

“Thank you, Shiro-chan,” she rasped, as her throat was still sore from her crying session.

She gave him a parting squeeze around his chest and then released her hold on him. As she got up to fix herself up in the mirror, Tōshirō took the opportunity to get that glass of water for her.

“How do I look?” Hinamori asked as Tōshirō came back. She sounded better, though still a little hoarse.

“Good,” he answered simply, and handed her the cup.

Hinamori quietly drank the water, and then headed for the door. Before she left, she gave her old friend another hug.

“Don’t worry,” said Tōshirō as he calmly returned the embrace. “We will find out what happened to Aizen; there will be time for mourning later.”

“I know,” she replied, her voice stable once more. “Thank you again, Shiro-chan.”

“Hitsugaya-taichō,” came the automatic correction, but without any real force behind it, and then said, “I’ll escort you to the Fifth Division.”

Despite her mournful mood, Hinamori could not help but let out a quick laugh as she remembered Kira’s warning from the previous night.

At Tōshirō’s questioning eyebrow, she explained, “I guess Kira-kun isn’t a good enough bodyguard for you anymore.”

“I just want to make sure you don’t break down in the middle of the street.”

“Don’t be so mean!” she scolded, but on the inside she was smiling. Even though she was lost without Aizen, Hinamori knew she could find her way again as long as she had Tōshirō to help her.

* * *

“Ya heard the news?”

Kyōraku and Nanao turned around and saw Ichimaru Gin approaching them, his smile in its usual place.

“The news about Aizen-taichō’s being killed?” Kyōraku said. “Yeah, we heard.”

“Crazy, huh?”

“Do you have any idea on who did it?” Nanao asked.

“Nope,” Ichimaru answered. “What ‘bout ya?”

“The obvious answer would be the ryoka,” Kyōraku said. “But I’m not sure that’s right. I just fought one of them, and he didn’t have near enough strength to take on a captain. Even if he did, he wasn’t the type who’d pin Aizen-taichō to the wall.”

“An’ any fight between two captain-level people would be felt from here to the Rukongai,” Ichimaru agreed. “So that means Aizen never got to see whoever killed him.”

“What do you mean?” Nanao asked.

“Think ‘bout it,” Ichimaru explained, “Aizen’s killer had to be strong ‘nough to pierce his reiatsu, and covert ‘nough to do it without a fight. That means it was a sneak attack. An’ lemme ask ya this: who do we know that is both captain-level an’ skilled in assassination?”

“You don’t mean Soifon-?” the lieutenant of the Eighth gasped.

“If she were ordered to do it by Yama-jii or the Central Forty-Six, yeah, she would,” Kyōraku admitted. “But why would they? His record’s spotless.”

“Maybe he poked his nose somewhere the Central Forty-Six didn’t like, I dunno,” Ichimaru suggested. “There’s a lot ‘bout this that smells fishy.”

“Do you think it’s a coincidence that all this is going on because of Kuchiki Rukia?” Nanao asked. “After all, the ryoka Kyōraku-taichō fought said that their objective was to rescue her.”

“That so?” Ichimaru said interestedly, “Ya think Aizen-taichō didn’t like the verdict, an’ decided to be a bit too pushy in voicing his opinion to the Central Forty-Six?”

“If he protested too much, they could have ordered him dead. But since he was a respected captain, they had him killed secretly and let the ryoka take the blame,” she affirmed. “But why would Aizen-taichō take such an interest in saving Kuchiki Rukia? I had always heard that he had strong ethics, but did he think it was really worth risking his career, and his life, for this case?”

“Who knows?” Ichimaru shrugged. “But I think yer right ‘bout one thing: it ain’t a coincidence that all this hubbub is happenin’ after Rukia-chan was ordered to be executed.”

Nanao gave him a considering look.

“You know, Ichimaru-taichō, Soifon-taichō is not the only captain with the strength and speed to assassinate someone with Aizen-taichō’s power,” she informed him.

“Oh? Ya got someone special in mind?” he teased and crossed his arms, his hands hidden inside his sleeves.

“I do,” she replied flatly.

“Mind tellin’ me who yer thinkin’ ‘bout?” The smile did not shift. As always, it masked the man’s thoughts from the younger woman.

“I’m sure you can guess,” she said in an even tone. “After all, this person once told me that he once considered joining the Second Division.”

“Now that’s very interestin’, but it ain’t ‘nough to convict someone o’ murder.” He paused for a moment, and then corrected himself, “Actually, it might be ‘nough for the Forty-Six, now that I think ‘bout it. But a smart gal like ya knows better. Fer example, ya need to figure out the motive: why would this guy yer thinkin’ of wanna kill Aizen-taichō?”

“This same person also mentioned to me that Aizen-taichō was not exactly as he appeared.”

“Yeah, an’ so’s Shunsui,” Ichimaru rebutted. “As a matter o’ fact, nobody in the Seireitei ain’t what they appear to be.”

“Indeed,” Nanao concurred. “However, suppose this individual I’m thinking of discovered that Aizen-taichō harmed or threatened to harm someone close to him. It would not be uncharacteristic of this person to exact vengeance without consulting official channels.”

“Ooh, a revenge story, this is gettin’ good,” he exclaimed with a tone that sounded like enthusiasm. “But do ya have any proof that Aizen-taichō did any sort o’ threatenin’ that would lead to this person wantin’ to kill him?”

“I do not,” she admitted calmly. “I am simply stating that the list of suspects cannot be limited to Soifon-taichō.”

“Very true,” her verbal sparring partner agreed. “Fer example…”

Ichimaru leaned over so he was eye level with the brunette, and his face was within inches of hers. Nanao kept her expression sangfroid; while she was one of the few people brave enough to call herself a friend of Ichimaru Gin, she still got the shivers when he was on Creepy Mode. She had known this man since she was a girl, but that was part of the problem: she _knew_ he had the capabilities to pull off a secret assassination (even if he had a point in saying there was a lack of motive present).

“What ‘bout the guy who actually _trained_ this person yer thinkin’ of?”

Nanao went from suspicious to furious in one second flat.

“How _dare_ you suggest that Kyō-!”

Ichimaru boldly cut off her words by pressing a long, thin finger to her lips. It took every ounce of Nanao’s self-preservation not to slap his hand away.

“Careful,” the snake smirked. “If ya say such things so loudly, the _wrong_ people might get the _wrong_ ideas.”

With that “warning” said, Ichimaru removed his digit from her mouth.

“I don’t think we should be pointing fingers at each other,” Kyōraku chuckled, intervening between his former and current vice-captains before anything else could be said, “Especially with the invasion going on. After we capture the ryoka, we can ask them what they know. In the meantime, let’s get along, okay?”

Nanao nodded curtly, and Ichimaru gave a single, lighter nod of his own.

“Now, if y’all will excuse me, there’s someone I need to visit,” the fox said.

“See you later, Gin,” Kyōraku waved.

After the other captain had left, Kyōraku turned to his lieutenant and asked, “Nanao-chan, why are you so suspicious of him?”

“I’m sorry, Kyōraku-taichō, but Aizen-taichō’s death makes no sense,” she apologized. “It’s a puzzle with too many pieces missing, and it’s irritating.”

“And so you take it out on your old lieutenant? Kind of harsh, don’t you think?”

She was silent.

“Do you _really_ think that Gin had something to do with Aizen’s death?”

Finally, Nanao let out a sigh.

“No,” she conceded. “You’re right, he didn’t deserve my accusations; I’ll apologize to him later.”

“Good,” Kyōraku smiled. “I don’t like it when my friends fight.”

* * *

“Ichimaru.”

Gin turned to his caller in concealed surprise.

“Hitsugaya-taichō,” he greeted cheerfully. “Whatcha need? It ain’t often ya come to talk to me.”

While the younger captain always had the facial composure of an ice statue, his eyes were on Extra Frosty as he approached.

“You know Aizen was murdered,” Hitsugaya stated.

“Yep,” Gin confirmed.

“Then you should also know that Hinamori nearly had a nervous breakdown after finding Aizen’s body,” the younger prodigy continued.

“Really?” the fox’s smile dropped just a little. “I’ll make sure Rangiku an’ I visit her when we got the time.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that,” Hitsugaya said. “But what I came to tell you was this: if I find that you are the one responsible for hurting Hinamori, _I will kill you_.”

“Ooh, what brought this on?” Gin asked, the corners of his mouth lifting up again. This was the second time in so many hours someone had accused him of killing Aizen, and this time it wasn’t as subtle. Despite the ugly eyes he was getting from multiple sources, Gin was not too worried about being a genuine suspect. If the Gotei 13 truly considered him a candidate as Aizen’s murderer, he would have already been arrested by the Onmitsukidō and put behind bars. He was interested in hearing what Hitsugaya’s reasons were.

“I’ve seen the way you interact with Aizen,” the white-haired teenager explained. “You never trusted him like the other captains did. I wonder if you decided to eliminate someone you considered a potential threat without authorization, and then allow the ryoka to take the blame.”

“’Tween the two o’ us, I think yer the one who’s more suspicious of his fellow captains,” Gin pointed out.

“Perhaps. Perhaps not,” Hitsugaya admitted. “Either way, I will be keeping my eye on you, Ichimaru.”

Adamant on letting that sentence be the last word of their conversation, the Tenth’s commanding officer disappeared in a buzz of shunpo.

The vulpine captain shook his head. Really, the way Hitsugaya and Nanao were putting it, they made it sound like he had some sort of grudge against Aizen. Well, whatever reasons they had, it didn’t really matter; Gin was far more interested in what Zaraki Kenpachi had to say.

* * *

“Members of the Fifth Division,” Hinamori announced to the patrol leaders gathered in their division’s meeting hall, “As you most likely heard, Aizen-taichō has been murdered.”

It took every ounce of her willpower to keep from breaking down in tears as she had earlier. Even though she managed to keep a stable state of mind, her eyes could not stop from filling up.

Hinamori was not the only one affected by the death of their captain. She could see the saddened and angry expressions on the faces of her subordinates; Captain Aizen had treated them all well. Of all the people who had to be killed during the invasion, why did it have to be a good man like him?

“I know that you are all feeling the loss,” Hinamori continued. “But I also know that he would want us to continue performing our duties to the best of our abilities. And don’t worry; we _will_ find out who killed Aizen-taichō.”

“Was it one of the ryoka?” the Sixth seat asked, her tone belligerent.

Hinamori wanted to say “yes” immediately, but her time with Tōshirō had cleared her head, and she had done some thinking. While it was confirmed that one of the ryoka was indeed powerful enough to tackle with Zaraki Kenpachi, the fight had been loud enough to be detected by almost everyone in the Seireitei. And then there was the fact that Captain Aizen was one of the most powerful individuals in the Gotei 13, rivaling even Yamamoto in strength. Such a fight would _not_ have gone unnoticed.

But on the other hand, who else could have done it?

“No one saw what happened, but that is most likely the case,” Hinamori answered. “That’s why our orders are now to capture the ryoka alive, if possible, for questioning.”

There was general grumbling from the crowd, and she could not blame them. She was more than tempted herself to just “accidentally” kill the ryoka to avenge Aizen-taichō. But she knew he would not approve of that; he would have wanted her to get all the information first, and then make sure that the punishment was dealt accordingly.

“I understand your feelings,” Hinamori said out loud, “but if you do come across the ryoka, call for backup immediately. If they’re strong enough to kill Aizen-taichō, then they’ll be able to kill us without effort.”

This time grudging acceptance was more solid at her orders.

“Are there any other questions?” the lieutenant inquired. After a moment of silence, she declared, “Good luck; dismissed.”

* * *

“Yare, yare,” Gin commented as he approached the supine form of Kenpachi on his futon in the Eleventh Division barracks. “Ya look like you’ve had some fun.”

Kenpachi chuckled quietly, too wounded to provide more of a reaction. Unohana had treated his injuries, but she had firmly recommended in her own special way that he take it easy for the rest of the day.

“Yeah, I did, but I lost,” he replied.

“Ya lost? Wow, these ryoka are gettin’ stronger an’ stronger. Which one did ya fight?”

“The strongest one. His name’s Kurosaki Ichigo.”

Ichimaru leaned up against the wall reflectively and crossed his arms. “That the same guy who beat Ikkaku an’ Abarai-kun?”

“Yep.”

“Ken-chan didn’t lose! It was a two-on-one fight, so it wasn’t fair! I tried telling Ken-chan that, but he’s not listening,” Yachiru piped up defense of her father-figure.

“Yachiru, Kurosaki was right,” Kenpachi corrected. “If I want to get stronger, I need to know my sword’s name. I already tried asking it, but it didn’t give me an answer. Has it been too long?”

“Ya really think it’ll answer ya on yer first try?” Ichimaru asked.

The nameless warrior shrugged, and continued, “I’ll probably ask again.”

Well, best o’ luck to ya,” his smiling associate said. “So, ya gonna find this Kurosaki an’ demand a rematch?”

“You bet; tomorrow, after I finish resting up,” Kenpachi grinned.

“Don’t take too long; remember, he’s only gonna be here a short while.”

“Oh, yeah, Ikakku said he came here to rescue Kuchiki’s little sister.”

“I heard the same thing myself,” the fox agreed with a tone more thoughtful than normal.

“I forgot you had a soft spot for that girl.”

“Yeah, I think I would’ve adopted her if Kuchiki-taichō hadn’t met her first,” Gin replied. “She’s so fun to tease.”

“What, you’re going to rescue her, too?”

“Haven’t decided yet. How ‘bout ya?”

“Didn’t I just say I wanted to fight Kurosaki again?”

“Yeah, so?”

Kenpachi chuckled, and started to rise, “Yeah, I guess I owe the ryoka one for giving me a good time.”

“Unohana told ya to stay in bed fer the rest of the day, didn’t she?”

Zaraki paused. There was no trace of fear in his expression. All the same, he slowly sank back down until he was lying on the bed.

"Tomorrow," he affirmed, and closed his eyes.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** I tried to write these chapters in the spirit of the original Soul Society Arc. Specifically, I wanted to remind the audience that at the time, we had no idea that Aizen was an evil mastermind, and that he had been a benevolent and admired figure to everyone in Soul Society until the revelation of his betrayal.

I would like to give my thanks to **haeye** and guests for reviewing the last chapter.

* * *

**Omake: Illustrated Shinigami Guide**

Kyōraku was jolted awake as he felt someone snitch his hat and prized pink kimono off his formerly slumbering form. He frowned as he recognized the retreating reiatsu. Ever since he had chosen Gin has his lieutenant, the boy had been thinking of increasingly creative and/or daring methods to put the captain to work.

Seeing little choice in the matter, the Eighth’s commanding officer flash-stepped to his office. Once there, he cocked an amused eyebrow at the sight which greeted him.

Gin was sitting at the captain’s desk, and he was audaciously wearing both the hat on his head and the kimono on his shoulders.

“Pink doesn’t suit you, Gin,” Kyōraku informed his second-in-command.

The kit shrugged and removed the stolen items from his person. He got up from the desk and tossed them into his captain’s arms.

“All yers,” he said, and sat at his own desk to work.

Kyōraku shook his head as he reluctantly began to tackle the paperwork. He was sure of one thing: he had never had a lieutenant like Ichimaru Gin before.

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** One of the more unique writing exercises I had in this chapter was having Aizen act like a wise, compassionate captain, showing how he managed to fool Soul Society for over a hundred years.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to FETHJJ GYHHJ and Mythic Bluefrost for leaving comments!


	4. Want Me to Save You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gin asks Rukia the important questions.

**Originally published 10/1/2013**

* * *

Kira walked just behind his captain as they both approached to where the Sōkyoku perched in his sealed form.

The blond lieutenant honestly did not like that Kuchiki Rukia was going to be executed. It was bad enough that the Central Forty-Six had ordered her death, but wasn’t the Sōkyoku a bit of an overkill? The massive blade was intended for villains so evil or criminals so strong that they required the power of the Sōkyoku to be executed, and thus remove the risk of reincarnation. How could giving powers to a human qualify this unseated officer of noble blood for oblivion?

But there was nothing he could do about it; orders were orders. They may not always be fair, Kira would be the first to admit, but that was the harsh reality they lived in.

The lieutenant was shaken from his brooding as he and Hitsugaya joined the line of captains who were present for the execution ceremony. Idly, Kira noted that there were not that many attendees. The absence of representatives from the Twelfth and Eleventh was no surprise, and he suspected that Hinamori could not come due to the extra workload forced upon her by Aizen’s death. Captains and their adjutants from the First, Second, and Eighth Divisions were here, as was Isane from the Fourth, but Unohana had yet to arrive. More surprising was the absence of representatives from the Seventh and Ninth Divisions; perhaps they deemed the ryoka hunt dire enough that they excused themselves from the ceremony. He wondered why no one from the Thirteenth was present yet; perhaps Ukitake did not have the heart to witness the death of his subordinate, or maybe his sickness had reared its ugly head again. It was anyone’s guess as to whether Kuchiki would bother showing up for his sister’s execution.

Speaking of which, it was almost noon, so the condemned girl should be arriving shortly.

* * *

Rukia desperately attempted to identify where Renji’s reiatsu was emanating from, wishing and hoping that her senses might be wrong, and that her oldest friend was not on the precipice of death. She barely registered her escort turning towards her, obviously about to encourage her to start walking again, when they seemed to pause.

While she was reluctant to cease her search, the approaching footsteps ensnared Rukia’s curiosity, and she turned towards the source.

“Mornin’.”

She recognized the speaker and gave a quiet gulp.

“How are ya, Rukia-chan?”

Her vision locked with apprehension onto the approaching figure wearing a captain’s haori and a serpentine smile.

“Ichimaru… Gin,” she uttered.

And he wasn’t alone. Standing directly to his right was his lieutenant, Ichimaru Rangiku. Rukia relaxed slightly; while the snake’s visits were always nerve-wracking, they were more bearable whenever his wife was also present.

Upon hearing her nervous response to his casual greeting, the man’s grin widened in amusement.

“My, my, such familiarity,” he noted. “Do ya really think that we’re close ‘nough to use my name like that, Rukia-chan?”

Rukia did not know what game the captain was playing, so she decided to stick to formality. She was still a Kuchiki, even if she was going to be executed, and so she would maintain her dignity even in the face of this menace.

“I apologize for my rudeness, Ichimaru-taichō,” she said, and then turned to the other woman and greeted her, “Hello, Ichimaru-fukutaichō.”

“Rukia-san,” she replied, and smiled amiably at her. “You can call me Rangiku-san, you know.”

“Yeah, we don’t care ‘bout formalities here,” Ichimaru gave a brief chuckle. “I was jus’ teasin’ ya.”

“If I may ask, why are you here?” the condemned noble asked politely for Rangiku’s sake. While Rukia was not particularly close to her, the warm woman was a buffer zone between her and Ichimaru.

“I just wanted to ask ya a question,” he replied. “Ya know, before ya get annihilated by the Sōkyoku.”

Rukia ignored the remark and inquired, “What is it that you wish to ask?”

“Do ya wanna live?”

The prisoner blinked at the unexpected question, and noticed on her peripheral vision that her guards were shifting uneasily. No doubt unfortunate implications were going through their minds, but they obviously did not know the captain well enough that he would never do something foolish like rescue her. However, that still left the intention behind the question a mystery, so all she could say was, “What?”

“Do ya wanna live?” he repeated patiently.

Rukia paused to choose her next words carefully. “I have accepted my fate.”

“That ain’t an answer, Rukia-chan. Ya got all these people tryin’ to save ya, and here ya are walkin’ all nice an’ quiet to yer death. What do ya think will happen to yer ryoka friends if ya die?”

“They’ll leave. They won’t have any more reason to stay.”

He actually bared more teeth at her response, and any friendliness that might have been in those upturned lips disappeared. “Do ya _really_ think that after all that hard work they put into tryin’ to rescue ya, they’d jus’ throw up their hands an’ go home?”

“What else could they do?”

“Did ya know, Rukia-chan,” Ichimaru informed her casually, “that Aizen-taichō’s the only person who’s been killed since the invasion started?”

The prisoner shook her head. She had not heard much news from within her cell. She had garnered that a captain had been killed in action, but she did not know he was the only fatality of this futile mission to rescue her. Until Renji, she reminded herself despondently.

“If ya die, it’s quite likely that yer friends may decide to exact an eye fer an eye,” the silver snake continued on, and his grin seemed to widen at the sight of Rukia’s paling face as she realized his train of thought. “I wonder how many shinigami the ryoka would kill before the captains would go in an’ put an end to ‘em?”

“They wouldn’t,” Rukia protested quietly, but fear still crept into her voice. “They’re not killers.”

“Are ya sure ‘bout that?”

Rukia paused, and for the first time, thought about how her friends would react to her death. She knew that Ichigo was too thick-skulled to realize that she was not worth saving, and so he had placed her under his protection. If she were to die… well, Rukia vividly remembered that look of raw, primal hatred Ichigo had for his mother’s murderer. If he felt even a fraction that rage upon learning of his friend’s execution, then nothing but his death would stop him from taking revenge on those responsible.

“Uh-huh,” Ichimaru nodded at her silence. “An’ ya know that no matter how many shinigami they kill, yer friends will face a captain they won’t be able to beat. Right now, our orders are to capture instead o’ kill, ‘cause of investigatin’ Aizen-taichō’s death, but that might change if yer friends decide to go on a vengeance spree. So really, this ‘noble’ self-sacrifice attitude ya got goin’ is quite useless. If _you_ die, then _they’ll_ die.”

“I’ll ask Yamamoto for a pardon,” Rukia said quickly. “He’ll have to honor the last request of a Kuchiki.”

“After all yer friends have done to his precious Gotei 13, do ya _really_ think that he’ll jus’ let ‘em go?” Ichimaru asked.

Horror strangled Rukia’s body. Several seconds of clear, uninterrupted thought no longer hindered by remorse crept by. And when it was over, to her abiding disbelief, she realized that he was right; any effort to save her friends by sacrificing her life would be in vain.

“What else can I do?” she whispered out loud.

“Ya can live.”

“What?”

“Like I said, ya got all these people wantin’ to save ya. An’ from what I’ve heard, a lotta people in Soul Society have been helpin’ ‘em. The gate guardian, the Shiba, that twitchy lil’ officer from the Fourth, Abarai-kun, an’ now even Kenpachi an’ his gang are joinin’ in.”

Rukia was still reeling from the fact that the Shiba clan had aided in the rescue mission. True, she had seen Ganju, but he obviously had not known that he was helping to save the killer of his older brother. But at least one of the Shiba had to have known the identity of the person they were helping to rescue. Why would the entire clan help the person who had murdered Kaien? Wouldn’t they be the first in line to see her executed?

But those thoughts immediately flew out the window in the shock at the revelation that _Zaraki Kenpachi_ had joined the rescue mission. And she reacted like any other person would: with a drop of her jaw and an exclamation of, _“What?”_

“Don’t ya feel it?”

She closed her mouth and concentrated senses on her surroundings. Then she did feel the formidable power of Zaraki facing off with not just one but _two_ other captains. What in the name of all spirits in existence had convinced the battle-hungry warrior to help rescue her?

“Kenpachi told me that one of the ryoka beat him in a fight,” Ichimaru explained, detecting her unspoken question. “Kurosaki Ichigo, I think his name was.”

Rukia gasped and her eyes widened. Did Ichigo really defeat Captain Zaraki? When did he get so strong?

“Knowin’ Kenpachi, that makes Kurosaki his new favorite person, so he’ll be helpin’ to save ya as his way o’ sayin’ thanks,” he continued, looking as if he was thoroughly enjoying Rukia’s flabbergasted expression. “An’ as everyone knows, where Kenpachi goes, Yachiru, Ikkaku, an’ Yumichika follow.

“A full-fledged revolt has been started fer the sake o’ yer life, Rukia-chan.”

The petite girl was speechless for several moments. Then she finally whispered, “Why?”

“If ya wanna know that, you’ll need to ask Kurosaki. My guess is that it was his idea in the first place to rescue ya.”

Of course it was, the stupid fool.

“Must be a really great guy to come here an’ save ya. Might be why everyone’s up an’ joinin’ him.”

Rukia did not trust herself to speak her agreement with Ichimaru’s assessment of her friend.

“So, now that ya know all that, do ya wanna live?” he returned to his earlier question.

“Why is so important for you to know?” Rukia asked with more irritation in her voice than she probably should have included.

“Why don’tcha answer the question an’ find out fer yerself?”

“Oh, Gin, stop playing around,” Rangiku finally burst out in exasperation, and then looked at the prisoner and demanded, “Do you want us to save you or not?”

“ _What?!_ ” This time the question came not only from Rukia, but her guards as well. Their prior uneasiness was now outright alarm.

“Why’d ya have to rush?” Ichimaru asked petulantly.

“Because the other captains are bound to notice that their little prisoner is late for her execution, and so we need to be out of here before they realize what we’re up to!”

“Rukia-chan hasn’t said ‘yes’ yet.”

“Oh, for the love of…!”

Four quick executions of shunpo later, Rukia’s escort was on the ground unconscious.

“There, we’ve made the decision for her,” Rangiku declared. “We’re saving her whether she likes it or not!”

“What?!” the girl in question squawked incredulously at the way the woman’s line echoed Ichigo’s from a couple days prior. That and “why” were all she seemed capable of saying at this point.

Ichimaru shrugged, and stalked forward. Rukia flinched, and whatever protests she had vanished from her mind. The serpentine powerhouse now sported a particularly vicious smile on his face, and the girl wondered if she had been taken out of the frying pan and placed into the fire.

“Gin, no,” Rangiku said sternly.

“Oh?” he replied playfully, but notably he stopped. “Are ya sure ya should be talkin’ like that to yer captain?”

“First of all, I’m your wife, and I’ll talk to you however I want to,” Rangiku started, her serious tone contrasting with his jovial one. “Second, now that we’re rescuing Rukia, we’re not part of the Gotei 13 anymore, so you’re not a captain. And third, I know what you’re thinking, and I still say ‘no’: we are letting them live.”

Rukia glanced at the men on the ground and realized with a start that he had intended to silence them _permanently_.

“When they wake up, the other captains’ll know that we were the ones who rescued Rukia-chan,” Ichimaru argued. “We kill ‘em now, all they’ll know is that someone rescued her, an’ they’ll probably blame the ryoka. It’ll keep ‘em guessin’, make it easier fer us to sneak Rukia-chan out.”

“Perhaps,” Rangiku admitted, apparently agreeing with the logic, but not the ethics, of his plan of action. “But I don’t think it’s worth killing them over.”

He looked at his wife with a neutral smile on his face.

“Please, Ichimaru-taichō,” Rukia interjected cautiously. “I don’t want anyone else to die because of me.”

While his head did not move, and she could not see his eyes, Rukia felt Ichimaru’s gaze turn to her. She gulped, but held her ground.

Finally, the man let out a single laugh. “How can I argue with my two favorite women? ’Kay, we’ll do it yer way this time,” he said as he gave a relenting shrug. “Next, let’s get that collar off Rukia-chan and pick up Abarai-kun.”

“What? But he’s dead! I felt his reiatsu disappear!” Rukia protested, afraid to hope.

“He’s not dead yet,” Rangiku assured her as she knelt down to work on removing the reiatsu-sealing collar.

“Yeah, he’s just restin’; look,” the fox affirmed with an odd accent, which earned a very dirty look from his wife. As if to deliberately earn her ire further, he continued, "Remarkable bird, the Rukongai Red, eh? Beautiful plumage!"

While Rangiku scolded her husband about inappropriately timed references to popular mortal culture, Rukia focused her senses to where she had last felt Renji’s reiatsu. She realized with surprised joy that while her old friend’s reiatsu was weak, it was still present. Relieved that Renji was still alive, she turned back to her unexpected rescuers and asked the question that was on the forefront of her thoughts. “Why?”

What did they have to gain by helping her? They had no motive for saving her or her friends. Then again, two minutes ago she would have said the same of Zaraki.

“Last I checked, no one with Bankai was ever easy to kill,” Ichimaru answered.

“Not that,” Rukia shook her head with slight annoyance. “I mean, why are you helping me?”

Rangiku glanced up at her husband, and decided to let him explain. He looked thoughtful, as if pondering how to put his reasons into words.

* * *

_“Hey, Rangiku.”_

_The lieutenant of the Third Division looked up from her paperwork to see that her captain had returned to the office. Normally, she would be out on patrol looking for the ryoka, but there were some forms that demanded her immediate attention. She planned to finish only the few most necessary ones before going back out on field duty._

_“How goes the hunt for the ryoka?” she asked as she returned to her forms and continued to fill out the appropriate spaces._

_“Haven’t found ‘em,” he replied easily, and then veered off onto another topic. “I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout somethin’, an’ I wanna ask ya ‘bout it.”_

_“What?”_

_“Do ya really think Rukia-chan deserves to die?”_

_Rangiku froze, her pen hovering over the line that had yet to gain her signature. While she hated paperwork, the implication of Gin’s question was not her preferred way out of it._

_“You’re thinking about helping the ryoka rescue her, aren’t you?”_

_“Since it looks like ya already know the answer to yer question, how ‘bout answerin’ mine?”_

_She sighed, deciding to humor him for the moment. It was not as if he were suggesting anything illegal… yet._

_“No, I don’t think Kuchiki Rukia deserves to die.”_

_“Was that so hard to say?”_

_Okay, she was done with the humoring; it was time to get straight to the point._

_“Gin, this is not the kind of mischief that’ll get you a spanking from Yamamoto,” she scolded, “If you do anything to save Rukia, he’ll kill you.”_

_“He’ll have to find us first.”_

_“Us?” she asked flatly with a raised eyebrow._

_“What, did ya really think I’d do this adventure without ya? If I rescued Rukia-chan all by myself, then I’d have to leave ya… ferever. An’ while I do wanna save Rukia-chan, nothing’s worth bein’ separated from ya ferever. I promised that I would never leave ya, Rangiku. I’d really love yer help, but if yer dead set against it, we’ll stay.”_

_She sighed._

_“Why are you so interested in saving her, anyway?”_

_“Besides the fact that I like teasin’ her, an’ I don’t like sad endings? I actually think this rescue can work.”_

_“What makes you think that?”_

_“This ain’t the first time Soul Society has been attacked, we all know that. This ain’t even the first time someone’s broken into the Sereitei to save a prisoner. What’s different about this invasion is the fact that outsiders are comin’ in to save a shinigami, an’ some o’ the higher officers are joinin’ as well. An’ that’s only after a few days of bargin’ in here._

_“An’ I don’t know ‘bout ya, but I kinda like the idea of bein’ one o’ the few people to successfully rescue a prisoner from the Gotei 13.”_

_Rangiku contemplated her husband’s words silently._

_“Gin, do you really believe that saving Rukia-san is the right thing to do?” she finally asked softly._

_“Well, ya know that I’ve always had a hard time with right an’ wrong, but I think I’ve got it this time.”_

_She looked at him critically._

_“There’s another reason, isn’t there?” Rangiku guessed._

_“Ya got me,” Gin admitted. “There is. But I can’t tell ya what.”_

_Rangiku blinked in surprise. It was not often that her husband kept information from her. Most of the time, it was classified information that was deemed “captains’ eyes only.” Another instance that stuck more solidly in her mind was the fact that he had never told about his past before he had saved her from starvation. Whenever she had asked, his answer had always been the same: “As far as I’m concerned, I didn’t exist before the day I met ya.” Whether the answer was flattery or covering up his past or both, there were still parts of Gin’s life that remained a mystery to her. And most of the time, she respected his privacy enough that she let him keep his secrets._

_“Trust me, it’s a good reason,” he continued. “An’ maybe I’ll tell ya what it is someday, but not now.”_

_She knew that Gin would not suggest something on this scale lightly; they both had a good life here in the Gotei 13. If they rescued Rukia, then they would be forced to leave the Third Division, all the friends they had in the Seireitei, and perhaps even have to run to the world of the living in order to survive. If he had a good enough reason that he was willing to ask her to go through all that, then it was indeed very important to him._

_Rangiku sighed again. She looked at the forms in front of her, and the pen in her hand, before tossing the latter over her shoulder in resignation._

_“All right, if it matters that much to you, let’s go save Rukia-san; I don’t want to do this paperwork anyway.”_

* * *

“’Cause yer my second favorite woman in Soul Society,” Ichimaru finally answered simply.

“That’s not an answer!” Rukia protested.

“Yes it is.”

“Gin, stop agitating her and help me get this off,” Rangiku scolded as she fiddled with the clasp to Rukia’s collar.

The recently rogue captain calmly walked in front of them. Rukia held her breath and stiffened as she saw his hand rose up to her neck. She only exhaled and relaxed after Ichimaru had smoothly unlocked the collar, and let it fall to the ground.

Rangiku glared at him. “Show-off,” she muttered as she stood back up. He responded by turning the knob on his smile to Cheeky.

“Okay, next on the list is pickin’ up Abarai-kun,” Ichimaru said out loud, and then grabbed Rukia by the back of her obi. The former prisoner yelped in surprise as she was lifted off the ground and tucked under his arm. “Let’s go!”

* * *

Sentaro stood watch at the window in his captain’s office, and kept a nervous eye on the iconic hill at the geographic center of the Seireitei. He knew that any minute now, Rukia’s execution would begin. He also knew Ukitake had a plan to save the girl, but if he wanted it to succeed, he had better hurry up.

“Ready!”

Both Third Seats snapped towards their captain’s voice, who had finally emerged from his chamber with his tools in hand.

“Has the execution started yet?” Ukitake asked.

“No, sir!” Sentaro answered.

“Good,” the captain exhaled in relief. “Then we may not be too late.”

* * *

Hanatarō smiled reassuringly at Abarai Renji as he entered the last stages of the healing session. The latter’s battle with Kuchiki Byakuya had really done a number on him; the fact that Abarai was still alive spoke volumes of his resilience and Unohana’s skills.

“I need to get moving,” the patient groaned out.

Hanatarō’s smile disappeared, and he used every bit of pitiful arm strength he had to keep the larger man on the ground. Fortunately, the patient was still wounded, so he did not have as much energy to resist his healer’s insistence. Another factor in the Seventh Seat’s favor was Rikichi’s rush forward to help in making sure Abarai recovered correctly.

“Abarai-san!” the mousy man from the Fourth protested. “You can’t move just yet! Please let me finish up first!”

“Even if Ichigo rescues Rukia, he’s going to need help breaking her out of the Seireitei,” the now ex-lieutenant argued back. “I’m healed enough to help him with that!”

“I have to disagree with that!” Hanatarō corrected hurriedly.

“Ya shouldn’t argue with yer healer, ya know.”

The three men jerked their heads towards the new voice that had spoken. Their surprise at identifying the speaker as Captain Ichimaru was only augmented by what he was carrying under his arm. Or, perhaps it was more accurate to say _who_.

“Rukia!”

“Rukia-san!”

“Kuchiki-sama!”

“Renji! Are you all right?” the girl in question cried from her rather undignified position.

“I’m fine,” Abarai assured her. The difficulty he displayed in just raising his head to look at her was dwarfed only by his inability to understand what he was seeing.

“Gin, put her down,” the Rangiku instructed, and Hanatarō realized that this was the first time he had ever noticed the gorgeous woman _last_ in a scene. It was indeed a strange day.

Her other half obeyed without another word, and the tiny shinigami immediately rushed to her old friend’s side.

“Are you all right? Hanatarō, is he going to recover?” Rukia continued to ask.

“Definitely. I’m almost finished,” he answered.

“Hey, you said I wasn’t healed enough to fight,” Renji protested.

“And that’s still true,” Hanatarō riposted. “Even though your wounds have been healed, you’ve still lost a lot of spiritual energy.”

“Is he well enough for me to hit him for being an idiot?” Rukia asked.

“Go right ahead,” the healer permitted.

“Now, wait a min- OW!”

“YOU _IDIOT!_ ”

“An’ the score is now Rukia-chan’s Fist: One, Abarai-kun’s Face: Zero,” Ichimaru quipped.

“What were you thinking, almost getting yourself killed like that!” Rukia hollered.

“Rukia, you can beat him up later,” Rangiku interrupted, preventing the smaller girl from continuing her scolding, and ignoring Renji’s protest at the prospect of further injury. “Right now, we need to focus on escaping.”

“That’s right. But ‘fore we do anythin’ else,” Ichimaru agreed, and then turned to the Sixth Division unseated officer, “Who might ya be?”

“Rikichi, sir, of the Sixth Division,” the young man answered promptly as he stood at attention.

“Anyone know yer here?” Ichimaru asked.

“No, sir.”

“Then run along. If ya get back to yer squad soon, they’ll never know ya helped the enemies of the Gotei 13.”

“But I want to help!” Rikichi protested. “I’ve come this far, haven’t I?”

“If ya stay with us, ya might get killed. An’ even if ya don’t, all you’ll get is a life o’ exile an’ always lookin’ over yer shoulder, makin’ sure that we don’t get caught. Are ya ready to deal with that?”

The unseated officer hesitated for the briefest moment before declaring, “For Renji-san, I am!”

“Rikichi,” the red-haired man groaned, “Don’t. You’ve done enough for us. For that, I’ll always be grateful. But please don’t throw away your future for my sake. We won’t think ill of you if you go back now.”

“Renji-san, I insist!” Rikichi persisted.

“Jus’ as long as ya know what yer gettin’ into, an’ don’t get in our way, ya can come with us,” Ichimaru agreed, and then attained a thoughtful look on his face. “Ya know, if we keep attractin’ helpers like this, it’ll be more convenient fer the rebels to stay in Soul Society an’ to have everyone else be exiled.”

“Somehow, I doubt that idea would go over well with Yamamoto,” Rangiku deadpanned.

* * *

The captain-commander let a subtle sneeze escape him. Either there was a beautiful woman talking about him, or he was coming down with a cold. Conscious of his age and appearance, Yamamoto made a note to have some health-boosting tea later, before focusing his thoughts on a more pressing matter.

Kuchiki Rukia and her escort were late. With the ryoka invasion occurring, and with the goal of the intruders reportedly being to rescue Kuchiki Rukia, the tardiness of the prisoner was a legitimate cause for concern. Perhaps it would have been prudent to assign a captain to oversee the prisoner’s transfer from her cell to the execution site.

He looked over to his lieutenant. Chōjirō caught his meaning immediately. He acknowledged the silent order with a nod and set off to investigate what was delaying their arrival.

* * *

“Well, Gin, this was your idea, what should we do now?” Rangiku asked. “We’ll need to find the rest of the ryoka and let them know Rukia’s been rescued.”

“Findin’ ‘em’s gonna be bit o’ a problem,” Gin said. “Any y’all know where they might be?”

“Kurosaki’s under Sōkyoku Hill,” Abarai answered as he stood up, now that Hanatarō had finally finished healing him to his satisfaction. “There’s an underground training complex. I don’t know about the rest of them, though.”

“I think they’re in the Fourth Division’s holding cells,” Hanatarō offered.

“It’ll be easy to find Zaraki and his crew, just follow the big yellow reiatsu,” Rangiku commented.

“We find Kurosaki first,” Abarai declared.

Gin sent an inquisitive smile to the wounded warrior.

“He’s the only one of the ryoka still free,” he explained. “And he’s the strongest and the most reckless of them.”

“You’re not the one to criticize people about being reckless,” Rukia scolded.

“Shut up,” Abarai snapped back before continuing. “If he doesn’t get the message that we’ve already got Rukia, he’ll charge out to the Sōkyoku and get himself killed trying to take on all the captains at once.”

“Definitely,” Rukia agreed.

“’Kay then, next stop is Secret Underground Training Center,” Gin decided. “Let’s go!”

“But how?” Hanatarō asked. “Only you and Rangiku-san can flash-step right now.”

“Rangiku, carry Rukia-chan and Hanatarō-kun,” the now ex-captain declared brightly. “I’ll take care of Abarai-kun an’ Rikichi-kun.”

Four cries of protests went ignored as both Ichimaru lifted their unwilling passengers. Gin simply picked up Abarai and tossed him over one shoulder like a sack of persimmons, and held Rikichi likewise. Rangiku lifted Rukia bridal style in her arms, and allowed the bashful Hanatarō to climb on her back and ride piggy-back style (albeit only after she had given him a direct order to do so).

* * *

Chōjirō arrived at the bridge that connected Sōkyoku Hill and the Tower of Penitence, and that was where he discovered the bodies of the guards. After he scanned their reiatsu levels and confirmed that they were thankfully still alive, he applied some healing kidō to one of them. After a moment, a groan announced his return to the world of the waking.

“What happened?” Chōjirō inquired as soon as the man was coherent.

“It was Ichimaru-taichō and Ichimaru-fukutaichō! They attacked us and took Kuchiki Rukia with them!”

The lieutenant’s eyes narrowed.

“See to your fellow guards,” he instructed, and after his order was acknowledged, Chōjirō cast a Tentei Kūra to grant him direct communication with Yamamoto.

_“I found the guards unconscious. After waking them, they said that Ichimaru-taichō and Ichimaru-fukutaichō had taken Kuchiki Rukia.”_

Silence was the only reply at first, but the lieutenant could feel the anger burning off his captain’s mind.

_“Find them. Subdue them. If necessary,_ kill _them. Bring Kuchiki Rukia back.”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

The Tentei Kūra cut off, and Chōjirō set forth to carry out his orders.

* * *

“We’re at the bottom of Sōkyoku Hill now,” Ichimaru announced as he stood still. “Where’s this secret underground training center of yers?”

“It’s right over there,” Renji gestured over his shoulder, still facing the wrong way thanks to being slung across the captain's.

“I can’t see where yer pointin’,” the silver ex-captain complained.

“Then maybe you should put me down!”

The foxlike fighter complied. After satisfied that he was on his feet, Renji pointed out definitively and clearly which way their destination was, with more attitude than perhaps was necessary.

“Thanks.”

And then he was promptly yanked off his feet again by Ichimaru, and both of them flash-stepped to the entrance. It was only after all six of them reached the inside of the training room that Gin allowed the two former Sixth Division members to stand by themselves again.

“Hello!” Ichimaru called. “Anyone home?”

“No, come by later,” a familiar feminine voice called back, caution laden in every word.

“Yoruichi-san? It’s Abarai Renji,” the red-haired man announced. “And I’ve brought some friends home.”

“I think the friends brought you,” Rangiku teased.

“Shut it,” Renji growled.

“Ya should be grateful we decided to let ya tag along,” Ichimaru said. “If it weren’t fer the fact that Rukia-chan would cry if I left ya an’ Rikichi behind, I would’ve.”

“What? Why would you want him and not me?” Renji protested, gesturing to Hanatarō.

“’Cause he’s the best healer here,” Gin explained, “That makes him more useful than ya right now.”

“But I have Bankai!”

“Can ya use it right now?”

“…”

“I thought not.”

“Well, this is a surprise,” Yoruichi spoke up again as she emerged from behind a promontory. “Ichimaru Gin, come to help us. What’s your angle?”

Right around then Renji’s brain ceased to function, because while he remembered that the aforementioned woman was quite gorgeous, she was now stark naked. A moment later, his lungs ceased to function for a moment as well, due to one temperamental midget punching him in the solar plexus.

“Avert your eyes, you fool!”

Even though he knew it would be easier to simply obey her than to argue, he couldn’t help but protest with a wheezing, “Why… aren’t you… mad at the… other guys?”

“Because Rikichi’s passed out, Ichimaru-san is married…”

“Yeah, no offense, but I think Rangiku’s prettier.”

“Good answer, buster,” the wife smirked.

“No offense taken,” the _au naturel_ woman brushed off casually.

“…and Hanatarō is being a gentleman,” Rukia finished.

Renji stared at the other conscious man, surprised that the mild-manner healer wasn’t simply resorting to fainting like Rikichi had. Instead, Hanatarō was politely averting his eyes, as if he were considered Yoruichi’s modesty more important than his own bashful inclinations.

“Why aren’t you bothered by this?” he demanded.

“Well, I am a healer, so I’ve examined shinigami of both genders before,” Hanatarō explained matter-of-factly. “When you’ve been physically examining people for that long, skin exposure doesn’t really bother you.”

Renji gaped at the meek officer.

“Oh?” the catlike exhibitionist grinned mischievously, and started to walk towards Hanatarō in a sultry manner. “So _this_ doesn’t bother you at all?”

Since his gaze was averted, Hanatarō did not see what “this” referred to, but the seductive tone in her voice was enough to superheat his face and make him back up a few steps while trying to stammer out some sort of coherent response.

“So it’s the voice that gets you going, not the looks,” she smirked.

“YORUICHI!” A new and clearly irritated voice hollered. “WILL YOU JUST PUT ON SOME CLOTHES?!”

“Okay, fine,” she rolled her eyes and walked back the way she came. “Some people are so uptight.”

From the same direction Yoruichi had come, Ichigo appeared (fully clothed) with a hand beside his face, obviously meant to shield his view from any and all feminine nudity.

“So, did you do it?” Renji asked.

“Yeah,” Ichigo confirmed as he let his hand fall down to his side.

“Did what?” Rukia questioned.

“Bankai,” the human said, and then faced her, ignoring the shocked look on her face at his achievement. “And I see you got yourself rescued; good job, I’m glad you finally decided to see reason.”

“It’s not like they gave me a choice!” she protested, quickly getting over her surprise and stomping up to him. “They were as tyrannical as you were! ‘We’re going to save you whether you like it or not!’ What kind of way is that to rescue someone?!”

“It’s the way you save someone when that someone is too dumb to let herself be rescued willingly!”

“Pass the popcorn, will ya, Rangiku?” Ichimaru said.

The bickering duo froze as they remembered their audience.

“Oh, yeah, who’re you?” Ichigo asked as he turned to the unfamiliar faces.

“This is Ichimaru Gin-san, and his wife Rangiku-san, the now former captain and lieutenant of the Third Division,” Renji introduced. “They’re the ones who rescued Rukia. I think you already know Hanatarō, and the guy on the ground over there is Rikichi.”

“Thanks, Gin, Rangiku,” Ichigo said, though he gave the pair a cautious look.

“Just tryin’ to do the right thin’,” the former captain shrugged.

“Oh, really,” Yoruichi said skeptically as she returned properly clothed. “I admit that I didn’t know you that well when I was here, and I admit that things can change in a hundred years, but I would have never have pegged you as the type of guy who would do something for something as noble as ‘the right thing.’”

“Maybe I learned one thin’ too many from Shunsui, an’ now I have this irresistible urge to save damsels in distress,” Ichimaru suggested. Rangiku snorted as she rolled her eyes.

The golden-eyed noblewoman gave a skeptical “Hmm,” but did not question him further. For now, she seemed willing to accept any help offered to the cause. Addressing motives could be saved until later.

“So, what’s next?” Hanatarō asked hesitantly.

“Good question,” Rangiku assented. “We saved Rukia, but how are we going to get her out of Soul Society?”

“We’ll also have to find my friends,” Ichigo put in.

“Yer first priority should be gettin’ Rukia-chan out,” Ichimaru said. “If she don’t make it, then all our work is fer nothin’.”

“I’m _not_ leaving them behind,” the teenager growled firmly.

“We’re not going to,” Yoruichi assured him. “But you’re not going to be the one to rescue them this time. Ichigo, you take Rukia. I suggest going for the West Gate; you’re strong enough that you can lift the gate and let yourself out. I have a cape that will let you fly and get there faster. After you get out, go hide at Kūkaku’s place until the rest of us show up.”

“What about us?” Renji asked.

“You take Hanatarō and Rikichi out the same direction, but since Ichigo will be moving faster than the rest of you, you’ll have to go the slow route,” Yoruichi instructed. “Just do your best not to get caught.”

“How do we find this Kūkaku person?” Hanatarō asked.

“Just find a place to hide in the First Western District,” Yoruichi instructed. “I’ll come find you.”

Renji and Hanatarō nodded. Rikichi only groaned as he returned to consciousness.

“What?” he asked groggily.

“Just follow me,” Renji told him, since he figured it would be easier to explain the whole situation later as opposed to repeating it all now.

“Okay,” Rikichi accepted as he managed to stand on his own two feet.

“And you two,” Yoruichi finished, pointing at the Ichimaru family, “will go with me to find the rest of the ryoka and help them get out as well. We’ll all meet up at the Shiba house.”

“Got it,” Rangiku said.

“Wait,” Rukia interjected nervously, “We’re taking refuge with the Shiba clan?”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Yoruichi asked. Her tone was deceptively casual, but there was an undercurrent of challenge within it.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow in slight confusion, and looked to see if he could find any answers from the other shinigami. Hanatarō, Renji, and Rangiku all wore serious looks, and Rikichi seemed to be clueless about this topic, but Ichimaru still wore that same smile.

“No,” Rukia finally answered.

* * *

After he had finished his mental conversation with his lieutenant, Yamamoto turned to his immediate subordinates. “Ichimaru Gin and Ichimaru Rangiku have defected to the ryoka’s side by seizing Kuchiki Rukia. As of this moment, they are now our primary targets.”

“Yamamoto-sōtaichō,” Unohana spoke up. “What is the status of the men who were escorting Rukia-san?”

“Sasakibe said they were injured, but not dead.”

“May I inspect their condition personally?”

The captain-commander nodded.

“Come, Isane,” the chief healer commanded, and the two top seats of the Fourth Division departed.

“For the rest of you, find Ichimaru Gin, Ichimaru Rangiku, and Kuchiki Rukia!” Yamamoto ordered. “If the former two resist, you are authorized to use deadly force. Dismissed!”

“Yes, sir!” came the general acknowledgment.

As they departed, the old man kept a covert eye on his oldest student, Shunsui. He had noticed that the captain of the Eighth Division looked pleasantly surprised by the news of Kuchiki Rukia’s rescue. While Yamamoto did not want to think that the man he considered to be a son would betray him, his suspicious mind kept the idea there. Chōjirō had told him a proverb from a western man, one of the few pieces of advice from that culture Yamamoto considered worthy: “Trust, but verify.”

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Sorry, but while Ichigo’s canon rescue of Rukia was awesome, it could not happen in this timeline.

Of all the plot elements in this fic, one of the most difficult to write was how Gin went about rescuing Rukia. In the first couple of drafts, he meets her on the bridge alone, as in canon, and still offers to save her, only to turn her down because he needs to ask Rangiku first. However, he still leaves her with the hope that Ichigo will rescue her. Then I realized that if Gin really did want to save Rukia, he would have asked Rangiku _before_ going to that bridge. And then that opened the can of worms of how _that_ would affect the story line.

I also wanted to find reasons for Gin to risk both his life and Rangiku’s for Rukia. In this timeline, since Gin stays close to Rangiku, he also forms closer bonds with his fellow shinigami, and allowed himself to get attached to some of them. He knows that he would do anything for Rangiku, but now he is finding out for himself how far he would go for someone he considers a friend.

And yes, Gin did make a Monty Python joke. No dead parrots were harmed in the making of this fanfic.

“Trust, but verify” is a quote by President Ronald Reagan.

And FYI: for dialogue taken from the series, my primary source was the subtitles from the Japanese version of the anime, but I also borrowed from the manga and English dub if I thought that they offered a better translation of a particular sentence.

My thanks to **haeye** , **ImSeriousBro** , **darkling59** , Raven’s Shadow, and anonymous guests for reviewing my story.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Why would you want to rescue me?” Rukia asked.

“’Cause I wanna adopt ya,” Gin answered.

“WHAT?!”

“Well, if we’re gonna save ya, the Kuchikis ain’t gonna have ya in their family no more,” he explained. “So I’ll be more than glad to take ya in. Rangiku always wanted a daughter.”

Rukia continued to just stare at the fox, allowing her jaw plenty of time to become acquainted with the floor.

“’Sides, don’t ya like the ring of Ichimaru Rukia?”

That did it. She turned around and started running off across the bridge as fast as her kimono would allow her.

“Where ya goin’, Rukia-chan?” Gin called.

“I’m late for my execution, remember?” she yelled back.

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** Looking back at this story, I think this is my favorite chapter, because this is the one that I really started to take the plot off the rails from canon. I liked having Gin confront Rukia like in canon, but with the twist that Rangiku was with him, and with the intent of following up on his offer. I liked writing him deconstructing Rukia’s attitude towards her execution, and giving her a reality check on what would really happen to her friends. And as an ironic twist to what happened in canon, instead of giving Rukia false hope and then yanking the rug out from under her, Gin induces a moment of despair before giving her hope and saving her.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to FETHJJ GYHHJ and Insecuriosity for leaving comments on the last chapter.


	5. Uprising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Great Escape! …Or not…

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 10/8/2013**

* * *

Now that the “Rukia Rescuers” had a plan of action, they were ready to leave. Of course, with Kurosaki Ichigo, nothing can ever be that simple.

“Why aren’t we leaving at the same time?” Ichigo asked. “Shouldn’t we stick together; you know, safety in numbers?”

“You, Ichimaru Gin, and I are the only captain-class fighters here,” Yoruichi explained. “Right now, there could be up to nine captains on top of Sōkyoku Hill. They probably know that Rukia is gone, so that means they’ll be rushing off to find her. Since we’re close to the hill, if one captain finds us this soon, it’ll be easy to call the others to our location. If the Ichimarus and I leave first, that attention will be drawn onto us, and should allow the rest of you to escape, assuming you move quickly and quietly.”

“Not sure I like bein’ bait,” Gin commented.

“Well, as you pointed out earlier, if Rukia doesn’t get out, then the whole operation is a failure,” the golden-eyed woman replied. “So if you’ve got a better plan, let me hear it.”

“Yeah,” he grinned. “Ya go out first. We wait fer the other captains to kill ya, an’ then Rangiku an’ I will stab ‘em in the back when their guard’s down.”

“No,” both Yoruichi and Rangiku flatly replied, and then the latter admonished, “Don’t make jokes like that; the kids will think you’re actually serious.”

“Who’re you calling ‘kids?’” Renji growled.

“It’s only to be expected when you act so childish,” Rukia sniped.

“Hey, she meant you, too!” he shot back.

“As fun as it is to watch you all bicker, you need to save it for later,” Yoruichi interrupted. “Now that we’ve all agreed on _my_ plan, let’s move. See the rest of you on the outside.”

She flash-stepped away, to be followed by Gin and Rangiku.

“Let’s hope Unohana-taichō ain’t at the Fourth right now, ne?” Gin commented after they were outside.

“Hopefully, even if she is, we’ll be in and out faster than she can respond to our break-in,” the Flash Goddess responded.

“YORUICHI!”

At the same moment the shout registered, a black-and-white blur raced to tackle the former captain. Remarkably, Yoruichi not only managed to sidestep the attack, she then pounced on her attacker in return. Gin caught only a glimpse of Soifon struggling with her old mentor before the force of the impact sent the both of them flying into a forested area which bordered Sōkyoku Hill.

“I guess we’re on our own,” Gin noted mildly as he watched the two speed specialists disappear into the woodlands.

The couple’s attention was drawn to the side once more as they heard a familiar huffing and puffing.

“Wait! Up!” the large lieutenant of the Second panted, and then stopped in terror as he noticed the defecting pair looking at him.

“Do ya really wanna fight us?” Gin asked in amusement. “Or do ya wanna go help out yer captain?”

Obviously preferring any two-on-one odds to be in his favor, Ōmaeda disappeared in a buzz of shunpo to catch up with his commanding officer.

“’Kay, now with that outta the way, let’s go arrange a prison break.”

* * *

Ukitake and his Third Seats were rushing through the corridors of the Seiretei towards Sōkyoku Hill when two figures flash-stepped in front of them. The captain’s heart almost failed him until he realized that it was Kyōraku and his lieutenant.

“Kyōraku,” Ukitake exclaimed in surprise. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s been a change of plans,” his old friend smiled. “We won’t need to destroy the Sōkyoku after all.”

“Did the Central Forty-Six change their minds?” Sentaro asked incredulously.

“Of course not,” Kyōraku chuckled. “Gin and Rangiku-chan saved Rukia-chan.”

The Third Seats gaped in an identical manner.

“They did? Why?” Ukitake asked, surprise clear in his voice as well.

“Don’t know yet,” the captain of the Eighth replied. “But now that they’ve rescued her, we do have the option of backing out.”

“What do you mean?” Nanao inquired.

“Well, technically we still haven’t broken the law yet,” Kyōraku pointed out. “If anyone here wants to keep it that way, we can just let Rukia-chan and her rescuers escape on their own.”

Ukitake considered the proposition only briefly. “No,” he said at last. “I want to make sure that Rukia lives, and I will do everything I can to ensure that end.”

“Figured you’d say that,” Kyōraku smiled. “All right, since Rukia-chan’s safe right now, maybe we should find the rest of the ryoka and let them know.”

“You’re right,” Ukitake agreed, “Let’s go.”

“Excuse me, Ukitake-taichō,” Nanao said. “But what are you going to do with that?”

The captain looked down at the tools he had intended to destroy the Sōkyoku with.

“I suppose we should make a brief stop by my barracks first,” Ukitake suggested sheepishly. “An artifact like this should not be left in the streets.”

* * *

“Okay, I think we’ve waited long enough,” Ichigo declared. “Let’s go.”

“Are you sure we allowed them enough time?” Hanatarō asked hesitantly. “I mean it’s only been a couple minutes…”

“I’m with Kurosaki on this one,” Renji said. “I think it’s time to move out.”

“Didn’t you hear Yoruichi?” Rukia demanded. “She said we needed to wait!”

“She never mentioned for how long!” Ichigo retorted.

“The reason they went first was so that the other captains would go after them instead of us!”

As if on cue, they felt the reiatsu of a pair of captain-class fighters engage in combat.

“There, mission accomplished, now let’s go,” Ichigo announced, and before anyone could stop him, he grabbed Rukia’s arm and flash-stepped to the clearing directly above the large cave.

“Wow, leaving without saying goodbye?” Renji remarked sarcastically.

Exactly one second after he had done so, Ichigo reappeared, and brought him up to the surface in a similar manner as he had Rukia. Two more uses of shunpo delivered Hanatarō and Rikichi to the same place as the ruffled Renji and Rukia.

“I figured it would be faster for you to let me bring you up here than let you climb the ladder,” Ichigo explained belatedly.

“Warn a guy next time,” Renji grumbled.

“See you guys later, take care of yourselves,” Ichigo said as he yanked Rukia off her feet and held her under one arm.

“Is there a single man who knows how to hold a lady properly?!” the girl protested hotly as she squirmed in his grip.

“It’s easier to carry you like this,” Ichigo replied casually. “And stop wriggling or I’ll drop you.”

“When I saw Ichimaru Gin and Ichimaru Rangiku depart alone, I knew that Rukia had to be with you.”

The troupe froze as they heard a familiar monotone voice.

All turned to find Captain Kuchiki standing a few yards off, watching them like a hawk sighting mice.

“Kuchiki Byakuya,” Ichigo grinned menacingly. He set Rukia back on her feet, and then took off the Tentōken. As he tossed it to Renji, he told him, “Take this and get the others out of here.”

“What are you doing?” Rukia hissed.

“I have a score to settle with this guy, and you’ll need a distraction in order to get away,” Ichigo explained as he brought Zangetsu forward into a standard position.

“You can’t fight him!” she protested. “Don’t you remember what happened the last time you fought him? I don’t care if you say you’ve learned Bankai, you can’t win against him!”

“Rukia, shut up and let Renji rescue you,” Ichigo ordered without looking at her.

His casual dismissal of her words sent Rukia into a furious speechlessness as she tried to find the proper way to convince the substitute from not taking an action she deemed suicidal.

“You sure you got this?” Renji took advantage of his old friend’s silence to confirm Ichigo’s idea while he donned the flight cloak.

Ichigo nodded.

“All right,” the ex-lieutenant said, and scooped up Rukia in his arms.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” she demanded.

“What?” Renji asked. “I thought you wanted a person who could hold a lady properly.”

“Ichigo can’t win against Nii-sama!”

“He stands a better chance against him than the rest of us do,” the street fighter replied, and then told the other two men, “Hold on tight!”

Rikichi and Hanatarō obeyed by clinging tightly to Renji’s arms, and with a concentration of reiatsu, the red-haired man launched into the air.

“Did Rukia say you claimed to have attained Bankai?” the Kuchiki opposing Ichigo asked calmly, but with a healthy seasoning of disdain.

“Well, I was hoping to keep it a surprise, but she just _had_ to spoil it,” Ichigo grinned ferociously.

“Ridiculous,” Byakuya dismissed. “A mere human like you could not possibly attain the ultimate release of a zanpakutō. Especially not in two days.”

“You know, Kuchiki Byakuya,” Ichigo started. “Ever since the night Rukia gave me her powers, I’ve been doing stuff you shinigami say is impossible. I’ve beaten Hollows, detected spirit ribbons, fought off a Menos Grande, defeated your lieutenant, got shinigami powers of my own, broke into Soul Society, beat your lieutenant _again_ , and even fought Kenpachi! What makes you think that a little something like the impossible is going to stop me now?”

The noble lord simply narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, a sign that anyone who knew him would recognize as the prelude to an execution

* * *

Soifon looked on smugly as her Onmitsukidō appeared out of their hiding places and surrounded Yoruichi. She ignored the lieutenant who had just arrived behind her, panting in a shameful manner.

The stealth commander’s confidence evaporated as she watched with shocked eyes as her former commander disable all of the Onmitsukidō in the amount of time it took for her afterimage to dissipate, until she and Ōmaeda were the only ones left.

“Incredible!” the broad man gasped. “She took them all out by herself! They’re barely more than statues compared to her! Captain, she’s really- WHOA!”

His comment was cut off as he managed to sidestep Yoruichi’s strike by a hair’s breath.

“Ha-HA!” Ōmaeda laughed triumphantly. “You may be able to beat the rest of those guys, but I’m the lieutenant of this division! I’m not a pushover like those- OOF!”

Once again, his declarations were cut short, this time by the former captain of the Second Division successfully knocking him out in a single blow.

“You’re slower than your father was,” the Flash Goddess noted, and then turned to her old student. “And while it’s true that I have abandoned the title of Corps Commander, I don’t remember abandoning my _other_ name.”

* * *

“There they are,” Kyōraku said out loud to the others as he picked up the familiar reiatsu of one of the humans. “Long time no see, eh, Sado-san,” he greeted amiably upon landing in front of the ryoka.

The teenager’s widened his eyes in fear as he recognized the captain. Without a moment’s hesitation, he leapt in front of the others and readied his fist. It did not seem to matter to him that he could not summon his armored form at the moment, due to him still recovering from his previous encounter with this flamboyant yet dangerous man.

“Whoa, calm down, there, Sado-san,” Kyōraku chuckled easily. “We’re not here to fight.”

The dark-skinned human stopped, and gave the captain a skeptical look.

“We just wanted to tell you that Rukia has already been rescued,” Ukitake explained as he landed next to his friend.

“What?” Sado rumbled in surprise.

“Kurosaki-kun did it?” a pretty girl asked excitedly.

“It wasn’t Kurosaki Ichigo,” Nanao reported as she joined the growing crowd of shinigami confronting the ryoka, Sentaro and Kiyone right behind her. “It was the work of one of the captains and his lieutenant.”

“Who would’ve guessed that Gin, of all people, would take to rescuing her?” Kyōraku chuckled.

“Ichimaru-taichō?” said the shinigami helping the ryoka, his jaw dropping in shock.

“Yep.”

“Where’s Kurosaki, then?” asked another one of the ryoka, a glasses-wearing young man who looked like he could have been Nanao’s brother. What was even more interesting was the fact that Kyōraku could detect faint Quincy reiatsu on him. This must have been the one who battled Kurotsuchi.

“I last saw him at the Shrine of Penitence, when Yoruichi had just dragged him off,” Jūshirō answered.

“Are you sure that Kuchiki-san is safe with this Ichimaru person?” the maybe-Quincy asked suspiciously.

The Eighth and Thirteenth Division members looked at each other nervously.

“I’m not sure ‘safe’ is the most accurate word for it,” Nanao answered cautiously. “However, since Rangiku-san is with him, he’ll behave for her sake.”

“Who’s she?” the girl asked.

“His wife,” Kyōraku answered, and then continued, “Now, the next thing you all should do is escape.”

“But what about Ichigo? And shouldn’t we try to find Ichimaru and Rukia-san?” Sado asked.

“Gin was my lieutenant, so I know him better than most, and I know that he’s a smart guy. He’ll be able to get Rukia-chan out,” Kyōraku assured him. “As for Ichigo, well, if he has Shihōin Yoruichi with him, he’ll definitely be fine.”

“But right now, we need to focus on escaping ourselves,” Ukitake said. “So please, let us help you.”

The ryoka gave each other brief glances before nodding.

“Glad to have you with us,” Kyōraku smiled. “Now, quick question: what are your names?”

Introductions were exchanged on both sides. Once this was accomplished the troupe turned to leave, only to find a new figure blocking their path. Bent and wizened though he may appear, even those who had never met him could recognize the clear menace emanating from the form of Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni.

“Shunsui, Jūshirō,” the oldest captain in the Gotei 13 said. “I assume that since you have ryoka in company, you are taking them to a cell to have them interrogated.”

The two captains winced. They knew that it would take more than shinigami uniforms to sneak humans and a Quincy past Yamamoto. And they also recognized the implications of Yamamoto’s statement. The old man was giving them a chance to accept that explanation, and to continue being captains of the Gotei 13, despite the fact that Yamamoto certainly knew that they were thinking of aiding the ryoka.

“It isn’t,” Ukitake confessed. He was not going to lie to his teacher, especially when it would not be believed.

“Ichimaru’s betrayal was a disappointment, as I expected better of an officer who had trained under you, Kyōraku-taichō,” Yamamoto growled. “But it seems that they learned how to stoop to such treason from your example.”

“The order to execute Rukia-chan is wrong,” Ukitake persisted. “She may have given powers to a human, but that is not a crime warranting execution.”

“Nanao-chan,” Kyōraku murmured. “Take everyone out of here. You don’t want to stick around for what’s going to happen next.”

She almost protested, as she wished to stay by her captain’s side, but Nanao knew better. With Kyōraku and Ukitake holding off Yamamoto, she would be the best defense the ryoka had against any other shinigami who showed up. So instead she only nodded mutely, and gestured for the rest of the group to follow her.

Yamamoto noted the departure of the lesser powerful fighters, but to the relief of his old students, the captain-commander chose not to pursue. Kyōraku and Ukitake knew that the best they could do against their old teacher was delay him long enough for the others to escape.

* * *

Hinamori was personally leading a patrol composed of some of the upper officers of the Fifth Division near Sōkyoku Hill, but so far, they had no luck in finding the ryoka.

There was another path coming up on the left, and just as they were about to go straight past it, another group of shinigami appeared from that direction. Hinamori stopped in surprise, and the rest of the patrol followed suit. The lieutenant blinked in surprise as she recognized the leaders of the new arrivals.

“Nanao-san?” Hinamori asked. “What are you doing here? With Kiyone-san and Sentaro-san?”

The other woman opened her mouth to respond, but before any words emerged, all of them were blasted off their feet by an enormous wave of molten reiatsu. The members of the patrol fell to their knees; a couple of them were almost unconscious due to the sheer amount of spiritual pressure. Hinamori could not tell the status of Nanao’s company, as she was focused on the condition of her subordinates.

“W-what is this…?” one of the officers gasped.

Hinamori could feel Tobiume trembling inside of her. While the amount of reiatsu should be a dead giveaway unto itself as to the identity of the bearer, the lieutenant’s zanpakutō, being a fire-type sword, could identify of the source of the power quicker than the other shinigami could.

Ryūjin Jakka had been unleashed.

“Yamamoto-sōtaichō has engaged in combat,” Hinamori managed to tell her subordinates.

“What kind of enemy could force the captain-commander to release his sword?”

“Who cares? We need to get away from here!”

“Everybody that can still walk will drag anyone who can’t,” Hinamori ordered, and did her best to raise her own reiatsu in order to shield her squad-mates from the captain-commander’s spiritual pressure, but it was like trying to extinguish a firestorm with a bucket. She was glad they were not any closer to wherever Yamamoto was; otherwise they would all probably be unconscious or dead.

Being so preoccupied, she failed to notice Nanao and company slipping quietly away.

* * *

“I guess Kenpachi’s already been through here,” Gin idly commented.

“What tipped you off first: the rising cloud of smoke, or the scattered heaps of injured shinigami?” Rangiku remarked dryly.

“’Scuse me,” her husband called to one of the officers, a blond man with glasses and an imperial attitude about him.

“Yes, Ichimaru-taichō?” the officer asked, weariness clear in his voice. And judging by his unconcerned demeanor at their presence, he had yet to get the memo as to their change of allegiance.

“What happened to the ryoka prisoners?” Gin asked.

“Zaraki and some of his crazies crashed in here and broke them out,” he answered. “We’ve managed to clean up most of the damage, but with all the injuries caused by the invasion, we’re stretched to our limits. We’re lucky no one’s been killed. Well, no one except Aizen-taichō, of course.”

The officer gave Gin a nervous glance as he said that. Okay, this was getting ridiculous; why did everyone think he had killed Aizen?

Still, that was not important, so the silver man asked, “Ya know where they went?”

“How should I know?” the healer asked in irritation, but then remembered his place and quickly bowed to the superior officers. “I apologize for my rudeness, Ichimaru-taichō! The day’s stress has made me forget my manners.”

“No big deal,” Gin waved off. “Thanks fer the info.”

“I’m glad to be of service,” the blond officer bowed again as the Ichimarus left.

“Well, this means that findin’ the ryoka is gonna be easier,” Gin said as they left the Fourth Division. “So, where’s that big yellow reiatsu?”

“Well, we last felt it in that direction,” Rangiku pointed. “I don’t feel him fighting anymore though.”

“Hopefully, that just means he’s takin’ a break after a good fight,” he commented.

Rangiku nodded in agreement, “Still, we should head over that way, just to be sure.”

Gin returned the nod, and they started flash-stepping over the walls of the Seireitei.

They had only been traveling a couple minutes when an icy voice stopped them in their tracks.

“Ichimaru.”

The speaker did not need to specify which; Rangiku had snapped her hand down to Haineko the instant she heard the person call their name and quickly pivoted towards the new arrival. Gin’s response was more casual, as he merely turned to face their interceptor, his smile on Standard and his arms across his chest in the appearance of casualness. But his right hand hovered near Shinsō.

Hitsugaya Tōshirō had his arms folded across his chest, disapproval clear in his posture, though one would be hard-pressed to detect it in his face. Just behind and to his right was Kira Izuru, though his own disappointment was much more apparent.

“Hitsugaya-taichō! Izuru!” Gin greeted amiably. “Fancy runnin’ into ya here.”

“I don’t know why you are doing this, and I don’t care,” Hitsugaya said. “Surrender.”

“If ya really wanna give up without a fight, that’s fine with me,” the fox replied cheekily.

“Ichimaru,” Hitsugaya ignored the taunt. “I am only going to warn you once more: surrender now or I will kill you.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Gin said. “Don’tcha wanna join the revolution an’ help rescue Rukia-chan? Or if ya don’t wanna leave the Gotei 13, ya can just let us go an’ pretend we never ran into each other. Fer ol’ times’ sake?”

“I cannot allow that,” the Tenth Division captain replied, and reached for his zanpakutō. “Ichimaru Gin and Ichimaru Rangiku: I am putting you both under arrest for treason against Soul Society.”

Gin’s hand dropped to his wakizashi, and he ordered to his wife as he took a defensive stance, “Rangiku, go on without me. I’ll take care o’ Hitsugaya.”

She did not argue, as the lieutenant knew that she would be useless in a captain-on-captain fight.

“Be careful,” she cautioned quietly, and then flash-stepped away.

“Kira,” Hitsugaya commanded to his lieutenant without removing his eyes from his opponent.

“Yes, sir!” he acknowledged, and took off in pursuit of Rangiku.

With both lieutenants out of the way, the captains now focused on each other. Hitsugaya gripped the hilt of Hyōrinmaru, while Gin was ready to strike out with Shinsō.

They were still for a few moments, each duelist daring the opponent to make the first move.

“Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyōrinmaru!”

“Shoot to kill, Shinsō!”

Blue dragon collided with silver snake, and the battle between two prodigies began.

* * *

Unohana dismissed her last patient with a nod of her head. As she had expected and hoped, none of Rukia’s guards had needed any serious healing. They would have a headache for the next day or so, but they would be fine.

Satisfied that she was finished with her work, the captain got to her feet and softly commanded her lieutenant to follow her.

“Where are we going?” Isane asked.

“On an investigation,” Unohana answered.

“Investigation?”

* * *

“Hadō Number Four: Byakurai!”

Rangiku jumped to avoid the spell that had been fired at her and drew her sword, facing the other lieutenant who had been chasing her.

“Rangiku-san,” Kira said to her, his sword already drawn and ready to attack. “I don’t want to hurt you, so please, surrender quietly.”

“Considering how execution-happy the Central Forty-Six seem to be lately, I’ll pass,” she answered.

“Why are you trying to rescue Kuchiki Rukia?”

“Gin thought it was the right thing to do.”

His already morose face dropped even further. “That’s the only reason?”

“When Gin does something because he feels it’s _right_ , instead of just because it’s what he wants to do,” Rangiku explained. “I know for certain that it’s the right thing to do.

“Now let me ask you this, Kira: why are you so sure that Rukia-san needs to die?”

“Just as you will follow your captain, I must follow mine,” he replied.

“I’m not following him because he is my captain; I am standing by him because he is my husband.”

Kira sighed.

“I’m sorry, Rangiku-san,” he said, meaning every word of it. “But I must obey orders. Raise your head, Wabisuke!”

* * *

_Third Seat Kira walked through the hallways of the Third Division, a stack of papers under his right arm. While the captain and lieutenant did just enough paperwork to make sure that Yamamoto did not separate them, a good portion of it still had to be completed by some of the lower-ranking officers. Still, considering that Kira had to do all the paperwork for the Third before Ichimaru came, it was actually_ less _bureaucracy than he once had to perform._

_“Izuru!”_

_The blond shinigami stopped and turned toward the familiar voice of his captain. Next to Ichimaru was the newly promoted captain of the Tenth Division. Hitsugaya Tōshirō, if Kira’s memory was correct._

_“Yes sir?” Kira asked, “What do you need?”_

_“Hitsugaya-taichō wants to talk to ya,” Ichimaru explained._

_“How may I be of service, sir?” Kira asked the white-haired captain._

_“I need a lieutenant,” Hitsugaya informed him without preamble, “And out of the potential candidates, I believe you to be the best choice.”_

_Kira almost dropped his stack of paperwork in shock. “I’m honored, sir,” he said, feeling a mixture of excitement and dread._

_“Do you accept?” Hitsugaya asked._

_“May I have some time to think it over?” Kira hesitantly requested._

_The shorter captain nodded, “I’ll give you a few days.”_

_With that said, he departed._

_“Congrats, Izuru,” Ichimaru grinned. “Ya get to be a vice-captain.”_

_“I’m not sure if I want to accept it,” Kira admitted._

_“Oh? How ‘come?”_

_“While it’s an honor to be offered a position as a lieutenant,” Kira explained, “it would also mean leaving the Third.”_

_“That’s all yer worried ‘bout? If ya want that seat, ya can take it; it ain’t like we’re never gonna run into each other.”_

_“I suppose so, but while I love the Third, no one’s ever refused the position of lieutenant before.”_

_“First time fer everythin’.”_

_“Are you trying to convince me to stay, Ichimaru-taichō?”_

_“I ain’t tryin’ to tell ya nothin’. Hitsugaya-taichō asked_ you _, not me. If ya wanna be lieutenant, then go with Hitsugaya. If ya don’t wanna, then don’t. That simple.”_

_Kira exhaled._

_“Thank you, Ichimaru-taichō,” he bowed in gratitude. “May I be excused? I have some paperwork to complete.”_

_“Yeah, go ‘head,” Ichimaru waved him off._

* * *

If it were any other scenario, Gin would be having fun. Actually, he still was having a good time. He just wished that his fight with Hitsugaya could have come when Rukia’s life was not at stake.

But he decided to enjoy the moment. While most people avoided Hitsugaya, the silver captain was one of the few individuals not put off by the young man’s icy aura. Though it was far from friendship or even amiable feelings, Gin felt that he had better understanding of the youngest captain than most other people (except of course Hinamori).

So while Gin found it a little sad that he had to fight Hitsugaya like this, he was also excited. For purposes of keeping the Seireitei intact, captains were not allowed to release their swords except in permitted areas. And Bankai? Forget it. Gin thought that the bright spot in this whole duel was that he finally could get a feel for how the white-haired boy fought.

As Gin would strike with Shinsō, Hitsugaya would counter with Hyōrinmaru. When the Tenth captain assaulted with his dragons, the Third captain would parry with his serpent. And just to make things interesting, Gin decided to talk with the kid. He knew that he would not be able to convince the rule-abiding captain to help him out, but that did not mean they could not have a friendly little chat while they fought.

“So, all the Central Forty-Six gotta do is slam their gavels and poor lil’ Rukia-chan is killed off,” he said conversationally. “Now how is that fair?”

“I didn’t know you had taken an interest in ethics,” Hitsugaya remarked dryly as he parried a stab from Shinsō.

“It’s not a regular habit, but this was a special case,” Gin admitted. He stabbed forward again repeatedly, keeping up the assault and not letting his opponent have a chance to counterattack.

“Ichimaru, we have our orders,” was the reply as the cold young man batted aside each thrust and managed to keep his defense solid.

“Orders, huh? Who decides which orders are right or wrong?” the fox asked, and pushed forward through a potential opening.

His thrust was avoided as Hitsugaya leapt into the air, and twisted upside-down so that his blade would come swinging at his enemy. Gin parried the attack and extended Shinsō forward.

Hitsugaya twisted to the side and landed on his feet, letting lose another ice dragon as he did so. Gin used shunpo to avoid the attack, and appeared several meters to his opponent’s left. He pointed Shinsō to his right as he felt the dragon turn and charge his new location. The frozen creature collided with the force of his reiatsu focused into his zanpakutō, and shattered into thousands of shards of ice.

To nobody’s surprise, Hitsugaya flash-stepped behind him with his nodachi raised above his head and ready to cleave the fox in two. The rogue shinigami felt his opponent prepare to attack from behind, and responded by taking a single step of shunpo forward. He entered Hitsugaya’s vision once again about fifty feet away facing him, Shinsō pointed towards him, but she did not strike out just yet.

“We must obey our orders if balance is to be kept,” Hitsugaya said, and tellingly did not release another attack just yet. “If we don’t perform our duties, the world will descend into chaos.”

“Oh, c’mon; don’t tell me killin’ Rukia-chan will help the universe. Ya know just like I do that what she did ain’t deservin’ o’ an execution.”

“Perhaps not, but that is not for us to question. If the captains decide to disobey, then the lower ranks will as well. And when there is upheaval in Soul Society, who will be left to perform konsō on whole souls, or to purify Hollows?”

“Ya already got upheaval when Kurosaki Ichigo an’ his friends barged in here,” Gin pointed out.

“They would have been dealt with eventually.”

“Are ya sure ‘bout that?”

“For argument’s sake, Ichimaru, what will saving Kuchiki accomplish? The Central Forty-Six has ordered her death; even if the ryoka manage to prevent her from dying today, more shinigami will be sent after her, even if Yamamoto has to carry out the sentence personally.”

“We’ll hide, of course.”

“Where?”

“Now, now, I can’t go an’ tell ya all my secrets, now can I?”

Shinsō took that statement as her cue to strike at her prey once more.

* * *

Renji had to admit, flying was _awesome_. He was moving at velocities that exceeded his own shunpo speed, and with the same amount of energy that it took to walk. As he and his passengers flew over the Seireitei, the wind rushing by them, the first-time flyer wondered if Yoruichi would let him keep the cloak after they had escaped.

“How much further is it?” Hanatarō yelled over the noise of air rushing by them.

Before Renji could reply, he felt a burst of reiatsu shoot towards them. He tried to evade, but a streak of light told him that a Byakurai spell had succeeded in lighting the Tentōken on fire.

“Hantarō!” Renji yelled, “Put out that fire!”

Before the other man could act upon his instruction, another low-level lightning spell buzzed by them, somehow not hitting any of the four yet igniting another portion of the cloth. A third strike not only hit the cloak, but also proceeded to cut off a sizable corner of the Tentōken. Either they were very lucky, or their attacker was _very_ good.

Even though Hanatarō had managed to put out the flames with a spell, the damage already done to the fabric had decreased their flight effectiveness. Renji knew that if they were going to meet up with the ground anyway, they might as well do so in a smooth and less painful manner.

As the rescuers’ altitude began to decrease, Renji tried to seek out their attacker. A flash of movement caught his eye, and he finally saw their pursuer. He could not make out the details from the distance, but the white coat on top of a black shihakusho was enough to make his blood go cold.

Renji cursed to himself as he realized that a captain was now hot on their tail, and that their odds for escape had now plummeted into the “very slim” range. He hadn’t completely recovered from his _last_ bout with a captain. He took another look, to see if he could identify which captain it was. His eyes could make out a head of white hair, but even as Renji mentally went through the list of captains, he was unable to come up with a match. Ukitake would fit in terms of hair color, but the haori of their pursuer did not have sleeves.

He stopped his internal inquiry of trying to identify their pursuer, and focused on making it down in one piece.

“Everyone brace for impact!” Renji yelled as they approached the ground.

Their landing was actually softer than he had feared. He had to brace himself by going down to one knee, and his two male passengers were sent on a couple of rolls, but they could still run, and that was what mattered.

“We need to go now!” Renji barked to his comrades as he got to his feet and started running past Rikichi and Hanatarō, trusting them to get up and follow after him as soon as they could.

His face slammed into what felt like a brick wall.

Since he was holding Rukia in front of him, she also got an unfortunate bump on her head by the impact of the invisible barrier that had magically appeared in front of them. Belatedly, Renji realized that someone had put up a Danku spell to cut off their escape.

The former lieutenant turned around on his feet to look the opposite direction, and saw their pursuer walking calmly towards them, his zanpakutō already drawn and released in the form of a rapier with the tip pointed at the ground.

It was that moment when Renji realized two things. First, the white apparel was not a captain’s haori, as he had first thought, but instead a jinbaori. Second, Renji saw that their pursuer was Sasakibe Chōjirō, the lieutenant of the First Division.

For the first time, Renji wondered how strong this man was. While facing a lieutenant was far better than a captain, Renji knew that he had not recovered enough reiatsu to challenge any rank above Fifth Seat. He had no idea about the capabilities of the First Division’s lieutenant, but if he was able to cast an eighties-level spell without incantation and fire off Byakurai with such precision, that meant he was going to be a tough customer, especially in Renji’s weakened state.

“I don’t like to fight, and I would normally ask that you all surrender quietly,” the older man said. “But I don’t think you are willing to simply lay down your arms and hand over the prisoner, are you, Abarai-san?”

“You’ll have to go over my dead body to get to her,” the rogue lieutenant snarled as he set Rukia down. Then he drew his own zanpakutō and charged forward, “Howl, Zabimaru!”

He swung his sword, and felt the dual spirit within roar with anticipation as they extended towards their prey.

Sasakibe batted Renji’s attack to the side, instead of a straightforward block. That was when Renji remembered this fighter’s fondness for western culture; the man’s zanpakutō was not like a katana. Instead of power and raw cutting ability, the rapier focused instead on agility and precise stabs. As Renji considered his tactical options, his opponent was already taking action, but not in the way he had hoped.

“Sai.”

The invisible power behind the lieutenant’s kidō snapped out and forced Renji’s arms behind him, and then sent him face-down on the ground. He panicked for a moment at his immobility, before seeing that Sasakibe had turned his back and was now focusing on the rest of the troupe. While Renji was confident he could break free from the low-level spell, even one cast by a vice-captain, it would take him a minute of struggle, and a lot could happen in that minute.

Both Hanatarō and Rikichi drew their swords on the lieutenant, placing themselves between him and their ward.

“Hanatarō, when I charge, you run,” Rikichi said, and his tone left no room for argument.

Seeing as they had little time to debate the matter, Hanatarō nodded quickly, and grasped Rukia’s hand in preparation.

With a loud battle cry, the young man from the Sixth Division charged with his sword held high. Sasakibe deftly sidestepped the attack as the young man’s blade dropped down, and lightly shoved Rikichi. He was slammed into the stone wall by the force, and his wind knocked out of him briefly.

“Shitotsu Sansen.”

An outline of a golden triangle formed and shot forward to pin Rikichi to the wall.

Hanatarō and Rukia had not made it far when Sasakibe turned his attention towards them. A single use of shunpo put him directly in front of them and stopped them in their tracks.

“Yield,” he ordered simply.

The healer gulped and shook his head in nervous defiance as he drew his zanpakutō and held it in front of him.

“Rikujōkōrō.”

Six beams of light slammed into Hanatarō’s waist and paralyzed him.

Sasakibe was just about to reach for the recently freed prisoner when he felt his first spell being broken. Renji, while still injured and not having fully recovered from his battle with Captain Kuchiki, still had enough reiatsu in him that he managed to break the bakudō holding him.

Not even allowing himself to catch his breath, the Rukongai warrior charged forward in blind fury and whipped Zabimaru between his friend and his enemy. Without any discernible concern in his features at this assault, the lieutenant stepped back to avoid the attack, and faced his first opponent once more.

“RUN, RUKIA!” Renji roared as he swung his zanpakutō again.

The girl hesitated, unwilling to leave her childhood friend when it might mean his death.

“Rikujōkōrō.”

Not wishing to be paralyzed by a bakudō spell again, Renji ducked and rolled out of the way of the incoming rods. His grin at avoiding the binding attempt fell as he saw that he was not the intended target.

Rukia was now unable to run even if she wanted to, for there were six golden beams holding her in place.

Renji cursed. The only way to get her out now was to beat Sasakibe, and he had to admit, he did not like his chances. But he raised his sword anyway, and Zabimaru flew to attack their target.

Sasakibe disappeared just as the blade was about to reach him. Renji’s eyes widened, and before he could react, his opponent appeared in front of him and pierced him in the exact spot where his left arm met his shoulder.

Renji hissed in pain as he felt the blade penetrate through his left socket, and clumsily retaliated by swinging Zabimaru. However, since the sword was still extended, he could not gather enough energy to use it properly, so it was a simple matter for Sasakibe to withdraw his own zanpakutō, which brought another gasp of pain from Renji, and bat the clumsy attack aside. The fencer then used his free hand to grab Renji’s right wrist in a surprisingly strong grip, and followed up by stabbing him in the solar plexus.

“I admire the loyalty you have for your friend,” the golden-eyed man said. “But if you continue like this, you will only succeed in killing yourself. Please yield and let Hanatarō treat your wounds.”

“If I give up on saving Rukia while I still breathe,” Renji coughed up blood. “I might as well be dead!”

Sasakibe gave him a considering look for a moment. Then he exhaled through his nose, and nodded once, as if he understood his opponent’s reasons.

“Very well,” the lieutenant said. “Then I suppose the only thing I can do for you is to allow you to die with the knowledge that you did your best to protect Kuchiki Rukia.”

He then pulled his zanpakutō out of Renji, and aimed it at his heart.

“ _STOP! PLEASE!”_

Rukia’s horrified scream made Sasakibe hesitate for a moment.

He turned his head towards the paralyzed girl and told her with no small amount of sympathy in his voice, “I would advise you to close your eyes for this, Rukia-san.”

“Please don’t kill him,” she begged.

“To kill him now would be the kindest option available to me,” he replied. “I have been ordered to recover the prisoner and bring in those who aided in her escape. If I spare Abarai-san, he will be tried and sentenced by the Central Forty-Six. Think about this, Rukia-san: if the Central Forty-Six would execute _you_ , a noble from the Kuchiki clan for a relatively minor crime, what do you think they’d do to your friend?”

The girl paled.

“The kind and honorable action,” the lieutenant finished, “is to end his life here in battle, where he can die with dignity defending you.”

Sasakibe turned back to his beaten yet unbroken opponent, and prepared to make that final stroke.

“ _RENJI!_ ”

* * *

Isane nervously followed her captain as they approached the outer gates of the Central Forty-Six’s offices.

“No guards are here,” Unohana noted out loud.

The lieutenant looked around and realized with a start that she was right; with such important leaders such as the Central Forty-Six, there were always a contingent of guards and sentries to ensure their safety. But now, the gates were eerily absent of any protective measures.

They crossed the bridge leading to the inner sanctum’s door.

“Unohana-taichō requests an audience with the Central Forty-Six,” the lead healer called out formally.

The only response was the activation of the emergency defense system.

“Now what?” Isane asked.

Unohana did not reply for a moment. Then she raised her right hand, and declared, “Byakurai.”

The silver-haired girl gave a horrified gasp as she witnessed her captain cut down the door which prevented their entrance. Breaking and entering into the offices of the Central Forty-Six was a capital offense! While Isane doubted that there was anyone who had the courage to execute Unohana ( _maybe_ Yamamoto… maybe), there was still the principle of the matter!

Before she could voice any protests, her elder spoke again, “The alarm is not sounding.”

Isane’s feeling of eeriness amplified as she realized that something _not right_ was occurring.

She followed her captain down the long staircase, and they finally came upon the chambers of the Central Forty-Six.

Isane gasped in horror at the sight that greeted them, and Unohana looked on in controlled shock.

Blood greeted their eyes. There was not a soul left alive in that room.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** While the personal saving of Rukia was performed by Gin and Rangiku, there was _no way_ I was going to alter the battle between Ichigo and Byakuya.

Another very difficult part to write was trying to figure out all the timing of the scenes. With something like three dozen characters in half as many battles, it took a lot of re-watching of the episodes to place all the scenes in a way that fit right.

As usual, many thanks to my reviewers: **Juliedoo** , **haeye** , **TykkiMikk** , Raven’s Shadow, and anonymous guests.

The part where Gin asks Hitsugaya about orders is a reference to the Bleach Musical (Played Seriously here, though). Speaking of which…

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“You are going against orders,” Hitsugaya warned his opponent.

“It’s no big deal!” Gin cheerfully replied, immediately relaxing his stance.

Hitsugaya blinked in confusion as he heard music starting to play from an unknown source. In addition to that, the area around them darkened and a spotlight shone on Ichimaru. Befuddlement painted his face as the fox started singing in a surprisingly decent voice.

_“Who decides what orders are the right ones?_

_Just where is the truth? Do ya know?”_

“Shut up.”

The cold command immediately ended the spell. Ichimaru stopped singing, the music cut, and the scene returned to its proper luminosity. Puzzled by the sudden silence, he turned towards Hitsugaya and gave him a frown of disappointed curiosity.

“You idiot,” Hitsugaya growled in frustration as he cradled his forehead with his left hand, “This is _not_ the musical.”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** It’s funny, but giving Sasakibe a greater role in this story wasn’t planned ahead. I was just trying to work out where everyone was with this alternate timeline, and I was thinking to myself, “Okay, Renji and Rukia are getting away way too easily, is there anyone left who’s _not_ occupied by a fight who could intercept them? Wait, _Sasakibe_? Hmm…”

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to Tinko the Wolf and FETHJJ GYHHJ for leaving comments.


	6. Treachery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of stabbing in this chapter, both front and back, metaphorical and literal.

**Originally published 10/15/2013**

* * *

The two top officers of the Fourth looked on in horror at the forty-six corpses which had once been the ruling body of Soul Society.

“H-how could this happen?” Isane asked hoarsely.

“I believe we’ll find the answer this way,” Unohana replied resolutely as she walked out of the chamber and through another corridor. Belatedly, Isane rushed to keep up with her captain.

The lieutenant realized that they were entering the area known as the Purewood Towers. It was the residence of the Central Forty-Six, and on pain of death, no one aside from them was allowed to enter. Instinctually, Isane thought about pointing this out to her captain, but considering the macabre scene which they had just discovered, perhaps such an indiscretion would be pardoned in this instance.

They entered the forest of towers, and Isane immediately saw a figure emerging from the nearest one. She gasped upon recognizing him.

“Hello, Aizen-taichō,” Unohana greeted gravely, seemingly unsurprised at his “not-quite-dead” status. “But I believe that ‘taichō’ is no longer appropriate, is it, perpetrator of high treason, Aizen Sōsuke.”

“How do you do, Unohana-taichō?” Aizen replied warmly, but Isane could detect no true affability in that tone anymore. “I was thinking if you were going to come, it would be soon. Did you know I was here right away?”

“If you went through all the trouble of creating a fake corpse of yourself, then there would be no better place to hide than in these chambers, where entry is forbidden,” Unohana answered.

“Close,” the newfound traitor admitted, “But you made two mistakes. The first is your assumption that I came here to hide myself. And the other…”

Suddenly, Aizen was holding the dead body they had found pinned high to the wall a couple of days prior.

“…this isn’t a corpse figure.”

Both women looked on in surprise.

“W-when did he…?” Isane asked.

“When did I get this?” Aizen finished her question. “I’ve been holding this the whole time. Only until this very moment, I just hadn’t decided to show you that.”

What followed was a full explanation regarding the effects of Kyoka Suigetsu’s Complete Hypnosis, after which he brought out a long strip of cloth. With a whip of his wrist, the ribbon extended to surround him. Unohana immediately recognized it as a teleportation device.

“Lastly, let me compliment you,” Aizen spoke as the teleportation spell began its work. “Although you touched it the longest for your examination, you were superb to sense even a slight incongruity about my corpse while under Complete Hypnosis, Unohana-taichō.

“Farewell; I doubt we shall meet again.”

Isane was not about to let the traitor leave without a fight, and even if she was a healer with limited combat experience, her anger ruled that she attack. She charged forward and drew her zanpakutō, but it was too late; the spell had already allowed Aizen to escape.

Isane cursed as she realized that the criminal had gotten away.

“It could not be helped,” Unohana assured her. “Find out where he went.”

The lieutenant immediately got to work and tracked down the coordinates of Aizen’s teleportation destination with a Kakushitsuijaku spell.

“It’s Sōkyoku Hill,” she announced.

“Very well,” Unohana acknowledged. “Send a message to all captains and lieutenants informing them of the situation. After you have done so, we will go to Sōkyoku Hill and treat whatever wounded may be there.” The chief healer paused for a moment, as if she were considering something. Then she instructed, “And also, send that same message to the ryoka as well.”

* * *

Chōjirō had the point of his sword aimed at Abarai’s heart, and was about to commit the rather unsavory act of ending the man’s life when he felt a burst of captain-level reiatsu appear on his spiritual radar. A moment later, the head of the Ninth Division materialized right next to Kuchiki Rukia, noticeably without his haori, and with bandages over his upper right torso.

“Tōsen-taichō,” Chōjirō said in surprise. The Ninth did not have patrols anywhere near this area, so why was their captain here?

Without a word to the lieutenant, the blind captain took out a white ribbon Chōjirō immediately recognized as a teleportation spell. Before he could react, Tōsen had taken himself and Rukia away, the latter still bound by the Rikujōkōrō spell.

Chōjirō regained his composure and frowned. It seemed that Tōsen’s sense of justice declared that the Kuchiki girl should not die. He wondered how many others the Gotei 13 would lose due to the Central Forty-Six’s decision to execute this child. He was not unsympathetic to the rescuers’ cause, but his own path lay with his captain. He wanted to alert Yamamoto of the occurrence, but he felt that the old man’s sword was already released, and that meant he was now in combat. It would not be a good idea to distract him.

So instead, Chōjirō first cast a Rikujōkōrō spell to bind Abarai in place. It would have been easier to just kill the man, as he intended to only moments before, but he never liked killing, even when it was necessary. Besides, there was something bothering him: if Tōsen had truly come to save Kuchiki Rukia, then why did he just take her and leave her friends behind? His pride in Justice should have guided him into battling Chōjirō to rescue all of the defectors. And from the look on Abarai’s face, it appeared that Tōsen’s actions were as much of a surprise to him as well. Until the old lieutenant had the answer, he would keep Abarai alive.

After he had confirmed that his adversary was restrained, Chōjirō cast a Kakushitsuijaku to track where the renegade captain had gone.

Surprise once again took him as he recognized the coordinates of Tōsen’s destination. If the captain had arrived to help Rukia escape, Chōjirō would have expected them to head west, the general direction she and her rescuers had apparently been going. Perhaps even north or south, to throw off pursuers.

Instead, he found that Tōsen’s location was Sōkyoku Hill. Why would he go there, if his intention was to rescue the condemned girl?

Unless saving Kuchiki Rukia was _not_ his goal.

The golden-eyed veteran came to the conclusion that there certainly had to be a third party involved with this conflict. Tōsen obviously did not take Kuchiki Rukia on the authority of the Gotei 13, but it was now apparent that he was not there to save her, either. This unknown third party would also explain Aizen’s death. Chōjirō was as puzzled as anyone else by the identity of the captain’s killer; he knew that none of the ryoka had the power to kill Aizen, and even if they did, none of the reports he had heard indicated that they would be vicious enough to nail him to a wall on his own sword. After all, there had been no fatalities at the hands of the ryoka as of yet; the closest case was Kurotsuchi Mayuri, who had been forced to retreat from his attacker in a liquid state.

It was for that reason that the old lieutenant suspected that the Quincy (the same one who almost killed Kurotsuchi) might have been the culprit. He knew firsthand how vicious the spiritual archers could be in a fight, especially if they were out for revenge; impaling an enemy to a wall would not be out of character for them.

But if this third party was responsible, then that meant that the ryoka were innocent of murdering a captain.

That was why when he received Isane’s message only a minute later, he was not surprised to learn that another party had indeed been responsible for recent events. However, he was as surprised as anyone else as to learn the identity of that third party. From the way Renji appeared to be listening, it looked like Isane’s message had reached him as well. Good; that meant one less person to inform.

He turned to the two other shinigami still trapped in his binding spells. With a wave of his hand, he dispelled the effects, and all three of them were freed.

“Abarai-san,” Chōjirō called. “Since there is no need for us to fight anymore, I suggest that you let Hanatarō tend to your wounds. I will also let you explain the situation to your compatriots.”

“You’re letting us go that easily?” Abarai rasped as he sealed his zanpakutō and eased down to the ground. The healer was at his side a second later with kidō spells active.

“Carrying out fraudulent orders is illegal, Abarai-san,” the lieutenant of the First Division chided mildly, and sent a small smirk in his direction. “If you had told us that earlier, we could have avoided this whole bloody mess.”

Abarai scoffed in humor at the remark, only to regret it as he coughed up another load of blood.

Satisfied that his work here was done, the oldest lieutenant in the Gotei 13 flash-stepped at top speed towards the geographic center of the Seiretei, where he knew two traitors to be found.

* * *

Hinamori’s patrol slowly made their way through the streets of the Seireitei, and they gradually were able to breathe easier as they walked or were dragged away from Ground Zero of Yamamoto’s Shikai. Their flight was finally stopped as the lieutenant inspected the condition of her troops and saw that they were now all able to breathe comfortably.

“Is everyone all right?” she asked.

A round of affirmatives, some more out of breath than others, answered her.

“Good,” she continued. “We’ll have to find another way around. And what happened to Nanao-san?”

The Fifth Division patrol looked around and saw that they were the only ones in the area.

“They must have gone the other way to escape Yamamoto’s reiatsu,” the Fourth Seat suggested.

“Probably,” Hinamori agreed. “But what was she doing…?”

The lieutenant stopped when she felt the effects of a Tentei Kūra spell making contact, and the other officers looked at her inquisitively. She held up a hand to stay any questions they might have, in order to hear the message clearly.

_“To the Gotei 13, all captains, lieutenants, and ryoka lady and gentlemen, this is Kotetsu Isane-fukutaichō of the Fourth Division. This is an urgent message from Unohana-taichō and myself. Everything I’m about to tell you is absolutely true.”_

The joy at hearing that her beloved captain was alive quickly turned to horror and disbelief as she heard how he had murdered the Central Forty-Six and faked orders for Kuchiki Rukia’s execution. There was no way her Captain Aizen would do such a thing, was there? It had to be a mistake, some kind of misunderstanding! There was only one way to make sure.

“Fourth Seat,” Hinamori said softly, as she came to a decision. “You are in charge now.”

“Hinamori-fukutaichō?” he said in surprise.

“I don’t have time to explain it all now,” the lieutenant continued. “But get everyone back to the barracks, and wait there.”

“What about you?” the Sixth Seat asked.

“There’s something I need to find out.”

Without another word, Hinamori flash-stepped as fast as she could to Sōkyoku Hill, even risking going through the storm of the captain-commander’s reiatsu she had just struggled out of. She did not see the need to tell them of Aizen’s alleged betrayal, not until she had seen the truth for herself. And that was _exactly_ what she intended to do.

* * *

Nanao froze as she listened to Isane’s message, and a look at her compatriots confirmed that they, too, had heard the news.

“Nee-san,” Kiyone said softly.

“I’m going to Sōkyoku Hill,” Nanao told the group, her tone not allowing any argument. “Kiyone, Sentaro, look after the ryoka.”

Without waiting for confirmation, she disappeared in a buzz of shunpo.

* * *

Still unable to move her body because of Sasakibe’s spell, Rukia’s eyes darted around in confusion as the long cloth gradually retracted, to find that she had arrived at the very place her friends were working so hard to keep her away from: the Sōkyoku.

“Welcome, Kuchiki Rukia.”

She was not well-acquainted with the man, but Rukia still recognized Aizen’s voice, even though she had thought he was dead.

“That will no longer be necessary,” Aizen said with feigned kindness as he dispelled the Rikujōkōrō from around her.

Rukia stammered wordlessly for a few moments as the traitor walked up to her.

And suddenly, she was in someone’s arms, and several meters away from her previous location.

“Sheesh, remind me to yell at Renji next time I see him.”

Rukia gasped and looked up. “Ichigo!”

“Hey,” the substitute replied, and nodded to the Fifth’s ex-captain. “That Aizen?”

The petite girl nodded.

Ichigo set Rukia down on her feet, and told her, “Stay here. I’ll fight ‘em.”

“Are you _insane?!_ ” she shrieked. “Look at you! Your fight with Nii-sama has left you barely standing! How do you expect to beat two captains by yourself?!”

“Don’t make such a fuss,” Ichigo snapped back. “You may be right, and I won’t win, but at least I’ll buy time for people on our side to get here.”

With that declaration, Ichigo raised his black blade and charged forward.

* * *

Gin and Hitsugaya paused in their duel as they heard Kotetsu Isane’s message.

“What do ya think o’ that, Hitsugaya-taichō?” Gin asked. “Sounds like we’re more needed up on the hill.”

“Agreed,” the other captain replied as he resealed his zanpakutō and returned him to his sheath.

Together, the two flash-stepped to the top of the hill within a couple of minutes, where they saw one very alive Aizen holding a terrified Rukia by her arm. Just a few feet away lay Kurosaki Ichigo, evidently defeated but still conscious. He looked at the new arrivals with relief on his face.

“Yare, yare, Aizen,” Gin remarked as he took in the scene. “So, this is the face you’ve been hidin’ from us all these years.”

“Ichimaru-taichō, Hitsugaya-taichō,” Aizen greeted them calmly. “Welcome.”

“So, Aizen,” the silver fox said casually. “Why do ya want to kill Rukia-chan?”

“Her death is necessary in order to attain my goals,” the recently revealed mastermind answered.

“Well, I think ya should let her go right now. Ya see, I’m a lil’ fond of Rukia-chan, an’ I don’t want her to die.”

“Let me ask you this, Ichimaru Gin,” Aizen said, handing off his grip on Rukia’s arm to Tōsen. “Who would you rather save: Kuchiki Rukia, or your wife Rangiku?”

“Now yer gettin’ nasty,” Gin remarked. “Are ya makin’ a threat?”

“The opposite, in fact,” Aizen countered smoothly. “I am merely pointing out that Kuchiki Rukia’s fate is certain; your wife’s is not.”

“Ya sure that ain’t a threat?”

“I am not deliberately setting out to kill her, Ichimaru Gin, but since I intend to make war against the Gotei 13, I’m sure you can understand that there is death in war. I am making you an offer; your personality and skills are unique and quite interesting, and I am sure I could make great use of them. I should warn you, that the days of Soul Society are numbered; I am giving you and your wife the opportunity to follow me and ultimately survive.”

“Ya really know how to sell a guy, Aizen,” the fox commented. “But what makes ya so sure that yer gonna win? Ya got eleven captains against ya, an’ all ya have on yer side is Tōsen over there.”

The former Ninth Division captain bristled at the implied insult, but restrained himself from attacking without permission from Aizen.

“The key to my power is within Kuchiki Rukia,” Aizen explained. “Stored inside her soul is an object called the Hōgyoku that erases the divide between shinigami and Hollow, creating in the process a hybrid more powerful than either. That is my ultimate goal: to break past the limits of a shinigami, and ascend to heights beyond which have ever been attained before.”

“It really does that?” Gin asked, sounding skeptical but not rejecting the idea.

“Urahara Kisuke was the one who made it,” Aizen informed him. “It works.”

“Huh,” the snake replied, and gave the offer a good thinking over for a moment before he answered, “Okay, I’m in.”

Both Rukia, restrained by Tōsen, and Ichigo, from his wounded position on the ground, gasped in horror.

“Jus’ let me find Rangiku an’ bring her here,” he said.

Before he could start to pivot, though, a large anthropomorphic canine rose up from behind Aizen with his sword raised and his lupine mouth forming a snarl of fury. Upon recognizing the gauntlets and haori of the unusual being, Gin realized with a start that this was actually Captain Komamura, unmasked at last. He only allowed himself a moment to be surprised by this revelation before he focused on the matter at hand.

“AIZEN!”

Calmly, the lead traitor caught the large captain’s sword with his bare hand.

Komamura’s follow-up punch forced Aizen to leap away to a safer position next to his subordinate.

Before he attacked again, Komamura turned to his old friend and demanded, “Tōsen, if you have an excuse, tell me now!”

The blind former captain’s silence was his only response.

“You don’t? Nothing?” asked Komamura, and then growled, “That’s too bad, Tōsen.”

An explosion of reiatsu signaled captain’s release of Bankai. Before he could make use of it, however, Aizen suddenly appeared in front of him.

Komamura gasped in surprise, and looked in time to see the image of his enemy next to Tōsen disappear. The illusionist used this distraction to begin his attack.

“Hadō Number Ninety…”

He was forced to cut off his incantation and whip his head backward to avoid being impaled on a suddenly extending sword. But he did not dodge it completely. While his skin remained unscratched, his glasses were not so fortunate. The frames were sliced through, and the pieces fell off his face and fell to the ground, the lenses cracking upon impact. Komamura took the opportunity to bring down the gargantuan blade of his Bankai down on the traitor. Aizen leapt out of the way of the massive sword, and reached for his own zanpakutō, only to snatch his hand back away at the last second before a lightning fast blade could sever it from his arm. The former captain turned his head and looked with a straight, serious face at the culprit.

“Aizen, ‘bout what I said,” the fox grinned from ear to ear. “Jus’ kiddin’.”

* * *

Rangiku had just resealed her sword after defeating Kira, and had just sheathed it when Isane’s message made contact with them both.

She gasped at hearing the news of Aizen’s betrayal and murder of the Central Forty-Six, and the fact that all orders concerning Kuchiki Rukia were falsified. From the horrified expression on Kira’s face, she guessed that he also received the message.

“Rangiku-san, I’m so sorry,” he said from the ground.

“It’s all right.” She knelt down and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder briefly. “Just stay there and rest; I’ll head to Sōkyoku Hill.”

“Good luck,” he called to her as she left.

Once again, Rangiku set off to save Rukia’s life. And this time, the rest of Gotei 13 would also be there to do the same.

* * *

Ichigo’s hopes rose when he saw how Ichimaru’s strike was quick enough to prevent Aizen from drawing upon his deadliest asset.

After his first attack, Ichimaru immediately followed up with a thrust forward from Shinsō, and the seemingly limitless blade sped towards her target.

“Danku.”

The shield of kidō magic cracked but held its ground, and succeeded in stopping Ichimaru’s zanpakutō in her tracks. At that same moment, Komamura brought his enormous Bankai down on Aizen’s head.

But it was too late; Aizen had drawn his sword.

Stopping the gargantuan blade with his own, Aizen then finished the spell he had attempted to use earlier.

“Hadō Number Ninety: Kurohitsugi.”

This time, Ichimaru was unable to prevent the man from the spell from completing, and Komamura was enveloped in a deadly box devoid of light. A moment later, he came into visibility again, and collapsed from the number of lacerations covering his body.

Ichimaru obviously realized that it was time to play hardball, and pointed his wakizashi at his opponent again. Then he uttered, “Bankai.”

Before he could strike, the fox jerked forward and lost his balance, and it suddenly registered to him that he was bleeding profusely from a deep diagonal slash wound on his back. The illusion shattered to reveal Aizen standing behind him, Ichimaru’s blood dripping from the blade.

“I must admit, that was the first time someone managed to prevent me from drawing Kyōka Suigetsu,” Aizen complimented as his latest opponent fell to the ground unconscious. “I do wish you had chosen the wiser course and joined me. You would have been a most interesting subordinate.”

He whipped his sword once, flicking the crimson liquid off her before returning Kyōka Suigetsu to her sheath.

“And now, where was I? Oh, yes, I was in the middle of explaining to you…”

“Hadō Number Four: Byakurai!”

The electrical bolt of kidō hit Aizen in the back, but did nothing more than singe his coat. He calmly turned to see a brunette woman wearing glasses, two fingers pointing in his direction, and now looking at him with a pale, terrified expression as she saw how ineffective her attack was.

At that moment, Hitsugaya flash-stepped in front of the newly arrived Nanao. In the debacle with Ichimaru and the subsequent short-lived fight involving the fox and the hound and the illusionist, Ichigo had almost forgotten about the quiet young man.

“Hitsugaya-taichō!” the woman cried in surprise.

Before she could react, the white-haired captain had already drawn his zanpakutō and let loose an ice dragon from the tip, obviously activating his Shikai on a mental command. The dragon encircled the shocked woman with its body, pinning her arms to her sides and trapping her within its frozen coils.

“What are you doing?!” Ichigo yelled at Hitsugaya. “Didn’t you hear the message? Aizen’s your enemy!”

“No, he is not, Kurosaki Ichigo,” the mastermind corrected.

The shock on Rukia and Ichigo’s faces was even greater than the one they had worn when Ichimaru “agreed” to join Aizen.

“What?” the substitute shinigami asked.

“Ichimaru-taichō was understandably mistaken when he said that there were eleven captains against me,” the smug sophisticate explained. “But there are only ten; both Kaname and Tōshirō work for me.”

With that said, he turned his gaze back to his captive.

“Kuchiki Rukia, when you were sighted again in the world of the living, the first thing I did was kill the Central Forty-Six.”

* * *

Rangiku lost her footing and almost fell when she suddenly felt something like a punch to her gut. She could feel her husband’s reiatsu ahead, and she could feel how it had suddenly dropped to a dangerously low and potentially fatal level.

“No, Gin,” she whispered, and urged herself to move faster. “Don’t you _dare_ die on me.”

* * *

“It was because I judged that a possibility had arisen that the execution would fail due to your efforts,” Aizen continued his monologue. “There are only two ways to remove a foreign object directly embedded inside a soul: either by evaporating the soul acting as the outside shell with an ultra-high temperature destructive force like the Sōkyoku, or by somehow going directly into the soul structure and forcibly detaching it. If, by some chance, the Sōkyoku execution were to fail, I would have to find the other way.”

As he continued this monologue, the deceiver reached into his shihakusho and removed a small, thin cylindrical object.

“What I needed to do that was information kept in the Underground Assembly Hall’s Great Corridor of Spirit Documents. One piece at a time, I investigated every scrap of Urahara Kisuke’s past research. Embedding of a foreign object in a soul was a technology he developed after all. I surmised, therefore, that the technology to remove it must also be hiding there.”

He seemed to switch something on, and the object released a cloud of ash into the air. Six large spikes erupted from the ground in a circle surrounding Aizen and Rukia, and the former’s hand turned a plant-like green.

“And _this_ is the answer.”

Aizen suddenly drove his gloved hand directly into Rukia’s chest. As Ichigo looked on helplessly, it seemed like a fist had been shoved into his own heart as well. All his training with Urahara, his fight with Ikkaku, his clash with Renji, his battle with Kenpachi, his duel with Byakuya, and he could do nothing but watch the one he had sworn to protect be killed right in front of him.

After a moment that seemed more like an eternity, Aizen removed something from Rukia’s body and dropped her to the ground, a gaping hole reminiscent of a Hollow’s where he had punctured her. Ichigo almost leapt for joy when he saw the hole close up and Aizen noted that Rukia had been unharmed in the retrieval of the Hōgyoku.

“But unfortunately, I no longer have use for you,” the sociopathic sadist said, and once again picked up Rukia by the front of her kimono, and dread rushed into Ichigo’s heart. “Kill her, Tōshirō.”

“Very well,” Hitsugaya said as turned towards his master and pointed the tip of his sword in the direction of the helpless girl.

At an unspoken command, another icy dragon emerged from the blade’s tip and flew towards his prey. Ichigo tried to get up, but his body refused his commands, and for the second time in less than a minute, the substitute shinigami was forced to watch as someone killed Rukia.

But instead of a small girl, the frozen serpentine creature impacted itself on the body of Kuchiki Byakuya.

“Nii-sama…” Rukia said in quiet shock.

The ice shattered, and Byakuya sank to his knees, held up only by the petite form of the sister he had just shielded.

“Nii-sama! Why did you save me?”

Aizen calmly took a few steps forward and reached for his sword. Ichigo realized with a panic that the man intended to finish the job himself.

Before he could, the traitor was interrupted by the arrival of Jidanbo and Shiba Kūkaku. The latter’s Raikōhō spell forced Aizen to relocate, but before he could retaliate, two forms flash-stepped in front of him, one keeping Kyōka Suigetsu in her sheath, the other holding a blade to his neck.

“Well, isn’t this a nostalgic face?” Aizen remarked calmly.

“Don’t move,” Yoruichi ordered. “If you so much as twitch one muscle…”

“I’ll lop your head off,” Soifon finished, her wakizashi only a millimeter away from carrying out her threat.

“I see,” Aizen conceded.

* * *

As Yoruichi and Kūkaku bantered, Tōshirō stood by and calmly witnessed his master’s seeming checkmate.

“I guess I better go help,” he grumbled, but was stopped by a sword at his own throat.

“Don’t. Move,” hissed the furious, feminine and all-too familiar voice from behind him.

Tōshirō turned his head enough for his captor to enter his line of vision. After his eyes met with Hinamori’s, he sighed and faced forward again.

“Apologies, Aizen-taichō,” he said. “I’ve been captured.”

As events continued around him with the other officers of the Gotei 13 arriving on the plateau, Hinamori whispered angrily in his ear, “Why did you do it, Tōshirō? I didn’t believe Isane-san at first, but I heard Aizen-taichō admit to killing the Central Forty-Six. I saw Aizen-taichō order you to kill Rukia-san. _I saw you try to kill Rukia-san!_ Why did you betray us?”

Hitsugaya turned his head again and looked at her, and he could see the hidden question in his old friend’s eyes.

_Why did you betray me?_

If the cold former captain had any reply, she never heard it.

At that moment, a burst of light came from the sky and surrounded Aizen, liberating him from Yoruichi and Soifon.

Hinamori looked up along with everyone else to see Gillians emerge from a crack in the sky, and two more pillars of light came down. One freed Tōsen from Hisagi, while the other separated her from Tōshirō.

“It looks like this is goodbye,” Tōshirō said, his voice tainted with sadness, and slowly turned to face her completely. “Momo… I’m sorry.”

Hinamori could do nothing but stare into his eyes, searching for something, _anything_. Through the glow of the Negacion, she saw so much pain in there. As the ground broke and began to lift him into the sky, she continued to hold his gaze, and saw how much he wanted to break free of the beam and come back to her. But for reasons that Hinamori could not fathom, he did not.

She ignored the conversations occurring with the other two departing captains; her eyes were only on Tōshirō’s retreating figure.

When the three were safe in the hands of the Menos Grande, and the sky closed up to its natural state again, she broke down and cried.

* * *

Rangiku got to the Hill just in time to see Aizen and his fellow traitors disappear into the Garganta.

But her attention was diverted to the fallen form of her husband.

“Gin!”

She rushed to his side, checking for any response, and desperately hoping that he still breathed.

It seemed to her that she had only gotten there when medics from the Fourth gently pushed her aside and began their work to save the captain.

“Is he going to be all right?” Rangiku asked the healers.

“We’ll do our best,” one of them answered. “And please, stay back and don’t distract us.”

Forcing herself to restrain a more emotional outburst, she nodded and complied.

Looking at the bloody figure of her husband on the ground, Rangiku suddenly realized how much the thought of Gin dying scared her. Despite their decades of marriage, she had never truly worried about her husband’s life. He had always seemed untouchable, the way he fought his enemies. Even the stronger ones he encountered he seemed to dispose of with ease, relying on his wits as much as his strength. Like the foxes of legends, it always seemed like Gin could outthink any opponent.

For the first time, her worst nightmare of Gin dying threatened to come to life, and in her terror, Rangiku cried.

* * *

 **Author’s Note:** If you don’t hear from me, it’s because I’m in my bunker hiding from all the Hitsugaya fans.

When I first plotted out this story, I knew from the beginning that Aizen should have two Dragons (AKA, “lieutenants” for those of you unfamiliar with TV Tropes), just as he did in canon. Since it isn’t Gin in this timeline, I figured that the best replacement would be Hitsugaya, because they share several similarities in the series. They’re both prodigies, they have a reptilian motif for their zanpakutō, they have a childhood friend they would go to any lengths to protect, and they both **_hate_** Aizen. Remember in the battle over fake Karakura Town, when Hitsugaya said that he did not care if he lost his captaincy, as long as he killed Aizen? That’s essentially what Gin did.

Finally, a question: when did you figure out that Hitsugaya was the traitor? Was it when:

  1. Ichimaru did not become a follower of Aizen (Oh come on, _really_?).
  2. Hitsugaya was shown to be a lot less friendly than in canon.
  3. Rangiku was nervous around Hitsugaya.
  4. Hitsugaya showed up when Aizen’s “body” was discovered instead of Gin.
  5. There was no note was left behind framing Hitsugaya.
  6. Hitsugaya was completely silent during Gin’s conversation with Aizen on Sōkyoku Hill.
  7. Hitsugaya did nothing while Gin and Komamura fought Aizen.
  8. Hitsugaya attacked Nanao/Aizen revealed it.
  9. Other (please state moment).



Funny story: partway through writing this, I came across a oneshot AU where Ichimaru was not a traitor, and went on to explain his acts during the Soul Society Arc from his POV. It was published in _2005_ , obviously long before we knew of Gin’s true motives, yet the author still managed to get his character spot-on. If you’re interested, it’s called “Ain’t No Mercy,” by incandescens. Part of the reason why I’m mentioning this is because I don’t want people accusing me of plagiarizing; all the main points of my story were already plotted out when I read it.

Thanks to following people for reviews: **Juliedoo** , **PaintTheAlienPink** , **TykkiMikk** , **The Lord of War** , and Raven’s Shadow

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Uh, excuse me,” Nanao called out politely from her frozen cage. “But it is rather cold in here, so could someone let me out?”

Kyōraku and Ukitake examined the icy dragon curled up around the former’s lieutenant.

“Think we should just shatter it?” Kyōraku asked.

“But what if the sharp edges cut her?” Ukitake pointed out.

“Well, whatever you’re going to do, please do it soon before I get frostbite!”

“Hmm,” Kyōraku let out thoughtfully, then turned behind him and hollered, “Yama-jii!”

Yamamoto silently looked at his eldest pupil.

“Mind giving Nanao-chan a hand here?”

“I don’t want to trouble Yamamoto-sōtaichō…” the lieutenant started, but then stopped as the old dragon moved his gaze towards her. If her cage had allowed her, she would have sunk to her knees with the power of that look. She was so focused on the strength of his spiritual pressure that she didn’t feel the ice melting around her until Kyōraku had scooped her up in his arms.

“Thanks, Yama-jii!” Soul Society’s Biggest Dandy said cheerfully before turning back to Nanao. “Now let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”

“I can change myself, thank you!” she barked as she jumped out of his arms.

* * *

 **AO3 Commentary:** First-time readers here, I’m also curious to hear when you started to pick up on Toshiro being the traitor instead of Gin. Those that read the conversations between FETHJJ and I were probably quicker on the uptake, I imagine (even as I tried to neither confirm nor deny their predictions), but I’m still curious as to when you caught on.

In hindsight, I’m wondering if I should have included a passing mention that a search of Aizen’s quarters revealed no clues, as a hint to readers that a certain letter wasn’t there.

Given the reaction from FETHJJ and recommendation from Noiram, I will add another tag to this story about how Hitsugaya has changed in this alternate timeline. I want to go for something that makes it clear he will be different in a way that may offend his fans, but not something that's too spoilery; any suggestions?

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mention to FETHJJ GYHHJ and Noiram ARDA for leaving comments.


	7. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As everyone is recovering mentally and physically from the events surrounding Aizen’s betrayal, Gin can’t even wait to get out of the Fourth before he feels the need to troll someone.

**Originally published 10/22/2013**

**AO3 Foreword:** Over on FFN, most people guessed Hitsugaya was the traitor when Rangiku when acted suspiciously and/or he acted colder, a couple more savvy readers guessed immediately, but a couple were more blindsided by the revelation. Here it seems like the result was about the same.

* * *

It seems like most people realized Hitsugaya was the third traitor (or at least started suspecting) when they saw his colder attitude and how Rangiku acted uneasy around him.

* * *

“How do you feel, Hinamori-kun?”

“It still hurts.”

Unohana settled back in her seat to regard the diminutive lieutenant closely. “That’s understandable. I know that you admired Aizen, so I imagine that you have some mixed feelings about the situation.”

On the day following the departure of the three renegade captains, Unohana had begun interviewing the people closest to the traitors, to ensure that they were still mentally able to perform their duties. Out of her patients, the one she had worried about the most was Hinamori. Not only was her beloved captain in reality a sociopathic villain, the girl was hit doubly by the fact that her oldest friend was also one of the traitors. Externally, she was handling it fine, but the ancient medic knew that Hinamori’s inner thoughts would still be a tempest of confusion and turmoil.

“It’s strange, but after the first pain of realizing the truth, it didn’t really hurt,” Hinamori said. “Right now, it’s Tōshirō leaving me that I’m more upset about.”

“You were close to them both. Why does Hitsugaya’s betrayal hurt more than Aizen’s?”

“I’m not quite sure,” she answered, but paused as if to gather her thoughts. Unohana waited patiently, sensing that the girl was trying to figure it out for herself. “When I first heard Isane-san’s message, I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t accept that my Aizen-taichō would do such a thing. But I had to make sure. I got to the hill as fast as I could, and I got there just as Aizen-taichō was talking about how he killed the Central Forty-Six, and how he was going to kill Rukia-san, and I saw him _put his fist in her chest!_ ” Her rant became faster paced and her breathing more ragged. “She was still alive, but Aizen-taichō didn’t even look like he cared! He wasn’t glad that she didn’t need to die! He ordered _Tōshirō_ to kill her! _And he obeyed him_! Why would he do that?”

“Hinamori-kun, please calm yourself,” Unohana interjected. “Take some deep breaths and then continue.”

The girl obeyed, taking a few moments to settle down with steady regulated respirations.

“It’s my fault,” she finally said. “I should have done something to stop Aizen-taichō before he tried to kill Rukia-san, but I just couldn’t move; I couldn’t believe the words that were coming from his mouth, I couldn’t _think_ , and _I couldn’t move_!”

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Unohana assured her. “Aizen had already defeated three captain-class fighters by the time you had arrived. Any attempt on your part would have resulted in similar injuries to you, if not death.”

“Still, I should have done _something!_ ”

“Hinamori-kun, in that instance, you were right in keeping your distance,” Unohana said firmly.

The lieutenant did not seem to accept the healer’s words, but did not argue the point anymore.

“The worst part was hearing him speak,” Hinamori resumed her thoughts softly. “Aizen-taichō’s voice always sounded so soothing. Even when I saw him fight Hollows and give orders, his tone was firm, but always gentle. When I heard him speak on that hill, he sounded _nothing_ like the man I knew. Aizen-taichō was warm and understanding; that _creature_ I heard on the hill was cold and cruel. It was as if someone had taken my captain out of his body and replaced him with a monster. It was when I heard him talk that I realized that the Aizen-taichō I knew was dead.”

She stopped for a moment, feeling more sobs coming onto her.

Noting this, her counselor leaned forward to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You can let it all out in here, Hinamori-kun,” Unohana said gently.

This permission was all it took. Her patient spent the next few minutes letting the tears flow, before regaining her composure. Unohana poured a cup of water for her, and let the girl rehydrate herself before speaking again.

“The only thing that’s stopping me from going completely insane is Tōshirō,” Hinamori resumed. “Because when I saw and heard Aizen-taichō, he had changed into a completely different person. But when I saw Tōshirō, he was exactly the same as always. He acted so cold towards others, but when he looked at me…”

She sighed and took a breath before continuing.

“When I held my sword at his neck, he turned around and looked at me. I saw the same Tōshirō that I had always known since we were kids. When I watched him go away in the Negacion, I saw in his eyes how much he hated to leave me. I don’t know why he thought he had to go, but he did.”

A shuddering breath interrupted her ramblings before she blurted out, “It’s my fault!”

“You are not to blame for Hitsugaya’s actions, Hinamori-kun.”

“I convinced him to join the Fifth Division! I loved it there and I loved Aizen-taichō, and I wanted Tōshirō to be there, too! He finally gave in to my begging and joined and became lieutenant! Aizen-taichō must have lied to him or manipulated him or something into thinking he was doing the right thing by leaving! If I hadn’t been so clingy to him, he would’ve joined another division and he wouldn’t have joined Aizen-taichō!”

“As was proven with Tōsen,” Unohana pointed out, “separation by division would not have prevented Hitsugaya from joining Aizen. You are not to blame for his betrayal.”

The first part of her statement was not completely true; while Tōsen had been with the Ninth for well over a hundred years, his first division out of the Academy had been the Fifth. But Unohana decided that Hinamori did not need to know that at this time. Right now, the girl was not thinking clearly, and would look for any excuse to blame herself, no matter how illogical.

Hinamori was quiet for a moment, and then spoke with a firmness that almost took the captain by surprise.

“I’m going to save him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tōshirō. I know that there’s hope for him. The next time we meet, I will make him understand that he doesn’t need to fight for Aizen. I will make him understand that he can come back.”

Unohana knew it would be pointless to contradict the young girl on this. She had heard a similar oath from Hisagi and Komamura concerning Tōsen, so Hinamori’s words were not unexpected. What did worry the healer was the fact that the girl may not accept that she would most likely be forced to take lethal action against her friend (or, considering the power difference between the two, he might just kill her). And even if Hitsugaya chose to return, he most likely would be imprisoned for treason, if not executed. But that discussion could wait for another time.

“Hinamori-kun, I think that’s enough for today,” she finally said. “I believe that you should take a full week’s rest.”

“But, what about the Fifth…?”

“Your Third Seat can handle the duties for one week. It is more important that you have some time to relax, clear your head, and most importantly, spend time with your friends. Next week at the same time, we will talk again.”

Hinamori looked like she wanted to argue, but wisely decided against it.

“All right, Unohana-taichō,” she finally agreed, and got up to leave.

“One more thing, Hinamori-kun,” said Unohana. “Be mindful of how you add suffixes to Aizen’s name now; he is no longer a captain.”

Hinamori froze. She had not even realized that she had still been keeping the honorific to Aizen’s name.

“Of course, Unohana-taichō,” she replied, and rushed out of the room before the lady could stop her again.

* * *

_Fireworks exploded from the west on the evening of December 20. The three intended witnesses of these illuminations were on the rooftops of the Fifth Division’s training grounds. Captain Aizen was sitting comfortably on the roof, his legs stretched out in front of him. Directly to his right was his lieutenant Hitsugaya. Unlike the captain, he still seemed to sit stiffly with his knees up, as if he did not know how to relax on his birthday. Third in the line was Third Seat Hinamori, the only one of the three who had to have a blanket wrapped around her to keep warm._

_Hinamori glanced shyly at the two men next to her. Captain Aizen was her hero, and Tōshirō was her best friend. She knew that people who joined from the Rukongai were not always able to stay with their friends, and so grew more distant over time. She was glad that had not happened with her and Tōshirō._

_The fireworks display reached their finale, and the white-haired lieutenant finally spoke, “Thank you, Aizen.”_

_The captain smiled warmly in return. It had bothered Hinamori at first that her friend never added honorifics to his superior’s name, but Aizen never seemed to mind._

_After a moment, Tōshirō then said in a quieter voice, “Thank you, Hinamori.”_

_His childhood companion beamed back at him._

_Now, she barely even noticed the lack of suffixes which might be misconstrued as disrespect. After all, the three of them were good as family._

* * *

Rangiku stood by her husband’s bed, simply looking at his unconscious form. Even though the healers told her that Gin would make a full recovery in no time at all, she still did not like the sight of him on a cot in the Fourth.

She reached forward and gently held his hand. At least it was warm, a sign that he was not close to death.

Honestly, Rangiku didn’t know what she would do without Gin. He had been part of her life for as long as her memory was worth recalling. He had been the one to save her from starvation in the Rukongai, and continued to look after her until they both joined the Shin’o Academy. After they officially became shinigami, things changed, but not in a bad way; Gin stopped being her caretaker. Instead, he became her teacher, and gave her lessons on survival. Those lessons were neither gentle nor kind, but in the long run, Rangiku was grateful he had taught them to her.

He always been her friend, and then so much more to her. He was now her husband, the center of her world, and she did not know what she would do if he were removed from her life.

No, she _did_ know; she would survive. She knew that Gin had been training her and preparing her for the possibility that he might die before her. If such a thing ever occurred, Rangiku would live on as best as she knew how, just like Gin would want her to.

“Rangiku-san?”

The lieutenant turned around and saw Isane standing in the doorway, a look of concern and sympathy in her eyes.

“I’m here to check on your husband’s condition,” the healer explained gently.

Rangiku nodded, and moved aside so the tall medic could do her job.

“It’s weird seeing him like this,” the lieutenant of the Third admitted to her peer. “Despite all the fighting Gin’s been through, I’ve never seen him emerge from a battle with anything more than a few bruises and scratches. This is the first time I’ve really worried that he might get killed in a fight.”

Isane sent her friend a sympathetic look. “It’s always scary after the first brush with death. Once we get into the upper seated ranks, we get confident of our power, and we start to feel as if we are invincible.”

“I always knew the risk was there,” Rangiku said.

“But it was never really reality for you, was it?”

“No,” the strawberry-blonde woman admitted softly.

“Anyway, it looks like Ichimaru-taichō is recovering well,” Isane changed the subject with the hope of brightening the other woman’s mood, and she started a session of kaidō by placing her hands over the captain’s back and letting the green glow do its work. “His wounds are healing quickly, and…”

A line appeared between her eyebrows as she frowned in confusion.

“That’s strange,” she noted. “It feels like he’s already awake.”

A weak chuckle reached their ears.

“Guess I’ve been found out,” Gin murmured as a familiar smile returned to his face.

“Gin!” Rangiku exclaimed excitedly, happy at seeing her husband conscious. But any relief she felt was overshadowed by annoyance. “How long have you been awake?”

“When ya started holdin’ my hand,” he answered. “I thought it was so nice to have a beautiful woman holdin’ my hand that I didn’t wanna ruin the moment.”

Rangiku narrowed her eyes at him and growled, “Flattery won’t help you here, buster. As soon as you’re out of the Fourth, I am going to punch you right back in for worrying me like that!”

“But I feel so weak,” Gin lamented. “I don’t think I’ll be able to leave fer a while.”

“From the looks of things, you should be cleared to go later today,” Isane informed him. “Tomorrow at the latest, though I do recommend you take it easy for a while.”

“Yer not helpin’,” he complained as he noticed the violent look in his wife’s eyes, and then not-so-subtly changed the subject. “So what happened? Did we win?”

“Not really,” Rangiku chose to humor him for the time being, and proceeded to inform him of the events on Sōkyoku Hill after he had been defeated.

“So Hitsugaya was workin’ fer Aizen?” Gin asked. “Thought so.”

“You mean you knew?” Rangiku asked in surprise.

“I started suspectin’ when he didn’t say nothin’ while I was chattin’ with Aizen, an’ I didn’t know fer sure ‘til Komamura showed up,” he admitted. “He wasn’t helpin’ out when Komamura an’ I were fightin’, so I figured he was probably workin’ fer the other side. Makes sense, though, since Hitsugaya used to be Aizen’s lieutenant, ‘fore he became captain.”

“We’re lucky no one died,” Isane said. “You were among the most critically injured, Ichimaru-taichō.”

“It ain’t lucky fer me.”

“Considering you’re in the Fourth Division instead of the next life, I consider that better odds than getting a smile out of Kuchiki-taichō,” Rangiku corrected him.

“I suppose so,” Gin conceded.

* * *

“Kira-kun, how are you feeling?” Unohana asked.

“As well as anyone would feel after having their captain abandon them,” he responded dryly.

“Do you blame yourself for what happened?”

“Some,” he admitted. “I feel like I should have figured it out sooner, that Hitsugaya was working against Soul Society.”

“Did you ever have any suspicion that he was a traitor?”

“No,” Kira sighed. “Hitsugaya was always cold, but he was an efficient captain. He was not close to any of us, except for Hinamori-kun, but he still treated us right. I don’t know if it’s accurate to say that we actually liked him, but he was definitely well-respected in our division. Now, I can’t help but wonder how much of it was an act; how much of his behavior was really because he was genuinely looking out for us, and how much was because he needed to keep up his appearance of being a good captain.”

“And now what?”

Kira exhaled slowly, organizing his thoughts. “What else am I supposed to do? I must continue my duties as a lieutenant. With Hitsugaya gone, the Tenth needs me now more than ever.”

“After at least three days off.”

“Unohana-taichō?”

“You need a few days off to relieve some of the mental stress caused by departure of your captain; I have already told the same to Hinamori-kun.”

Kira sighed, but gave a nod to show his obedience.

“That will be all for now,” Unohana instructed. “Come back three days from now, before you return to your duties.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

True to Isane’s word, Gin had been cleared to leave later that afternoon, not long before sundown, with instructions to take it easy and not participate in strenuous activity. Now he and Rangiku were on their way to the exit.

“It’s nice to be outta the Fourth,” the smiling captain said. “No offense to Unohana-taichō, but it’s borin’ to be layin’ in a bed all day.”

“You should have thought of that before you almost got yourself killed,” Rangiku scolded. “Which reminds me…”

WHAM!

Gin’s head rocked back, but his face emerged unscathed. Even though he was still recovering his reiatsu, he still had enough to shield himself from his wife’s fist.

“Aya, Rangiku,” he said playfully. “Ya didn’t need to do-!”

His wife was one of the few people who could succeed in surprising Gin, which was one of the reasons why he loved her. And she was giving a very nice surprise by grabbing the front of his shihakusho and pulling him into a fierce kiss.

After she had pulled away with a gasp, the fox sported a very happy grin on his face.

“Hmm, maybe I should get almost-killed more often,” he said thoughtfully, and then snapped his fingers as an idea occurred to him. “I know! I’ll take a trip to Hueco Mundo, and then I’ll get Aizen to cut me down again!”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Rangiku countered as she gripped his hand and dragged him along. “You are coming with me back to our room!”

“Well, if ya insist,” he grinned with feigned resignation. It looked like he was going to have to ignore that bit about avoiding strenuous activity.

* * *

Rangiku entered the Tenth Division late in the afternoon, noting that she no longer got the chills just by walking into area. She had been up most of the night with Gin eagerly and willfully disobeying the “avoid strenuous activity” directive, and so she had slept late. Now that she was awake, it was her intention to visit her friends from the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth and help them cope with the recent betrayal.

Despite her dislike of Hitsugaya, she still considered Kira to be a good friend, back when he had been a member of the Third. It had been sad to see him go and take the position of lieutenant in the Tenth, but she was always glad to see him in the vice-captain meetings. In some ways, Kira remained an honorary member of the Third, even if he was now the acting captain of that division.

With his captain gone and the Tenth’s morale broken, Rangiku decided that Kira needed something to forget his troubles for a couple of days.

* * *

Kira had long lost count of the amount of sake he had imbibed, only knowing that it could be described as “a lot.” All thanks to one Ichimaru Rangiku.

He had been depressed after the departure of Hitsugaya, and after his psychological interview with Unohana, he eagerly took the healer’s advice to relax. It was while he was settling down in his barracks the day after his interview with Unohana when bubbly blonde found him and suggested they share a drink.

Kira agreed to one saucer, but then one turned into two, two became four, and somewhere along the way, those numbers began to jumble up. Also somewhere after his fourth jug of sake, Hisagi had joined in on their commiseration.

He drank to forget, for the moment, about how he had admired his captain. He drank to forget that Soul Society had been changed forever. He drank to forget how much the betrayal hurt. 

* * *

Hinamori had heard that Kira had finished his session with Unohana, so she set out to find him.

Besides taking up the healer’s advice to spend time with friends, she wanted to talk to the Tenth Division lieutenant about something.

It had never escaped her attention that she was not the strongest lieutenant in the Gotei 13; that honor probably resided with Renji, now that he had attained Bankai. To be quite honest, her reiatsu levels were mediocre compared to others of her rank. She knew that Aizen would make his move eventually, and the Thirteen Divisions had to be ready for his next move. The purpose of this visit was to talk with Kira so she could arrange training sessions with him; out of the lieutenants, he was her only equal in kidō, but was her superior in zanjutsu. By sparring with Kira, Hinamori hoped to increase her kidō abilities while also bringing her skills with the sword up to snuff.

But first she had to find him and let him know about her thoughts. She detected his reiatsu in the Tenth Division and closed in on it.

It came as no great surprise to walk in on a heavily drunk Kira with Hisagi and Rangiku. She was quite shocked, however, at the… state of undress the men were in.

“Kira-kun! Hisagi-san!” she cried out, her face heating up with embarrassment. While she did not have romantic interest in either man, the fact remained that they were both attractive and _healthy_ examples of their gender.

“Hinamori-kun…?” Kira groaned, his voice muffled from where he lay face down on the floor.

“Help…” Hisagi moaned pitifully.

“Never mind,” she averted her eyes and backed away. “I’ll come back later.”

“There ya are, Rangiku.”

Hinamori turned around and saw Captain Ichimaru standing in the doorway with an amused expression at the sight of his drunken wife.

“Gin,” the well-endowed woman sang with a slight slur. “Ya were lookin’ fer me?”

One of the tell-tale signs that Rangiku had entered a deep state of inebriation was her words started to take on her husband’s accent, a feat that was somehow simultaneously amusing, adorable, and creepy.

“Just wonderin’ where ya were is all,” Ichimaru said.

“That’s so sweet o’ ya!” Rangiku gushed.

Hinamori cringed. “Sweet” was an adjective she would _never_ use to describe Ichimaru Gin, unless there was a heavily emphasized “ ** _not_** ” in front of it.

“Havin’ fun?” Ichimaru asked.

“It’s not really fun,” the lieutenant of the Third slurred. “Poor Kira an’ Shūhei were depressed over their captains leavin’, so I decided to comfort ‘em a bit. Sake works wonders, ne?”

“Yep,” the mirthful menace to life and limb affirmed. Although Hinamori could not tell whether he truly agreed with his wife on that point, or was just humoring her. While there were plenty of rumors as to the questionable existence of his sanity, she had no confirmation either way as to his drinking habits.

Ichimaru getting drunk… now _there_ was a frightening thought.

The Fifth Division lieutenant started walking out the door, but she froze when she heard the captain say, “Where do ya think yer goin’, Hinamori-chan?”

She quickly turned to her superior and bowed, “My apologies, Ichimaru-taichō. I didn’t know you needed something from me.”

“S’all right,” he chuckled. “I don’t really need anythin’; just wanted to talk a lil’ with ya.”

“About what?” she asked as she stood up straight again.

“Well, watcha doin’ here?”

“I was looking for Kira-kun, sir.”

“What fer?”

Hinamori hesitated, wondering how much she could get away with revealing. While she was good friends with Rangiku, she had not formed any such bonds with her husband, and so she was not entirely comfortable voicing her insecurities to him.

“I just wanted to talk with him about training,” she finally said. “Now that we’re at war with Aizen-ta- I mean, Aizen, we should be working to get stronger.”

“Good thinkin’,” Ichimaru complimented, either not noticing her near-slip-up, or choosing not to comment on it. “Though that ain’t the only reason ya wanna get stronger, is it?”

She looked down and to the left, unsettled at how easily he read her.

“Ya wanna have Hitsugaya back, don’t ya?”

“Yes,” she answered quietly.

“Ya wanna tie him up an’ slap him silly fer leavin’ ya like that, ne?”

Hinamori swore she could hear Tobiume vehemently agreeing with that statement, but out loud she quietly murmured, “I wouldn’t put it that way…”

“Well, best o’ luck to ya.”

“Ichimaru-taichō?” she blinked in confusion.

“Ya heard me,” the captain said, and walked past her to where his wife was still lying on the ground, barely conscious. With gentleness Hinamori would not have expected of him, Ichimaru bent over and picked his other half up in his arms. “An’ it’s time fer ya to get home, Rangiku.”

“’Kay,” she giggled, and snuggled into her husband’s chest.

Hinamori blushed a little at the scene and averted her eyes, feeling a trifle voyeuristic.

“Oh, an’ before I forget,” Ichimaru said as he faced her. “After Aizen was found dead, Hitsugaya came to me told me ‘bout yer breakdown.”

She frowned at the knowledge that Tōshirō would tell something like that to someone else, even if it was hardly a secret. But before she could complain, the captain continued.

“He told me that if I was responsible fer makin’ ya cry, he’d kill me.”

She blinked, and furrowed her eyebrows.

“But surely he knew that Aizen wasn’t really dead,” Hinamori said.

“Exactly,” Ichimaru nodded. “My guess is that Hitsugaya was askin’ me in his own special way to look out fer ya while he was gone.”

The brunette’s eyes bulged at the new information, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. Even now, that overprotective, caring idiot was trying to keep her safe.

“Why did he ask you?” Hinamori inquired.

“Who knows?” he shrugged. “Maybe no one else would’ve picked up on his request. In any case, I’ve decided to oblige him.”

“What do you mean?” she asked nervously.

“It means I’ll be helpin’ ya get stronger,” Ichimaru informed her.

“I-I don’t want to be a bother…” Hinamori whimpered.

“It’s no bother,” Ichimaru assured her. “Even if I wasn’t doin’ it fer Hitsugaya, I’d be doin’ it ‘cause yer a good friend of Rangiku.”

She inwardly groaned at the realization that she had the trickster captain as her new sensei.

“See ya ‘round,” the fox said as he walked out of the room with a very happy woman in his arms. He threw a “Bye-bye” to the barely conscious male lieutenants lying on the floor. They just managed to groan out an indiscernible response.

Momo sighed. Every time she spoke with that man, she came out of the conversation with a different opinion of him. She should probably start a list of adjectives she had attributed to him over the years: creepy, predatory, mischievous, weird, playful, scary, kind, cruel, loving, and even wise on occasion (but **not** sweet; **_never_** sweet).

She shook her head, and decided to head to the library. Some reading would definitely be a relaxing experience for her. Maybe she could also look up some new techniques for her to try in battle.

* * *

Renji honed on the reiatsu signature he had come to truly recognize only recently. After leaving Captain Kuchiki to rest, the Sixth Division lieutenant sought out someone else he needed to have a little chat with. Which was funny, because it was the one person Renji had never predicted to having an active interest in.

“Sasakibe-san!”

The old lieutenant stopped and looked at his approaching ally.

“Ah, Abarai-san, how are your wounds?” he asked.

“I’m all healed up,” Renji answered. “Which is why I’m here: I want a rematch.”

Sasakibe blinked in confusion, and then asked, “I beg your pardon?”

The redhead looked at him as if he were a few asauchi short of an Academy armory. “Don’t you remember when we fought last time?”

“Yes,” he answered cautiously. “I’m sorry, but I thought there weren’t any ill feelings.”

“There aren’t!” Renji rushed to say. “But now that I’ve recovered from my wounds, I just want to show you that you were lucky you didn’t face me at full strength.”

“Then I will continue to count myself lucky,” Sasakibe replied. “I must decline your invitation.”

“Oh? Afraid to lose, are you?”

“Childish taunts do not work on me.”

“Oh, come on, let’s have one spar; just one, that’s all I’m asking.”

Sasakibe gave a sigh of resignation, and acceded, “Very well, if it means so much to you, I’ll meet you in the Sixth Division training grounds tomorrow after I’ve completed my duties for the day. Is that acceptable?”

Renji nodded and grinned ferociously. “I’ll see you then.”

* * *

“Hello there, Rukia-chan.”

Rukia froze involuntarily at the sound of that unmistakable voice. Despite the fact that he had helped save her life, there was still something about Ichimaru that set her off. Admittedly, in a similar way she no longer feared Byakuya now that she knew he cared for her as a sister, Rukia’s uneasiness around Ichimaru had lessened with the knowledge that he had risked his life to help save her.

However, the difference was that she now knew her brother’s feelings and reasons, while she was still completely in the dark as to Ichimaru’s motives. As such, Rukia would remain cautious around this sly man.

“Greetings, Ichimaru-taichō,” she responded politely, and mentally noted that she no longer had to force manners upon herself for a conversation with him.

“How ya doin’?” he asked. “I heard ya got cleared o’ all yer charges.”

“Yes,” Rukia confirmed.

“That’s good,” Ichimaru said. “I was a lil’ worried that Yamamoto would at least give ya a slap on the wrist fer givin’ powers to a human.”

“Apparently, Yamamoto-sōtaichō thought that all decisions made by the Central Forty-Six after Aizen took over were to be declared null and void,” Rukia said, “including the crimes they passed judgment over.”

“Mighty generous o’ him,” Ichimaru commented.

“I suppose.”

“Ya don’t sound too happy fer someone who just got pardoned.”

She did not answer.

“Got a lot on yer mind, huh?” Ichimaru guessed correctly, to Rukia’s annoyance. “I don’t blame ya; I heard ‘bout the story yer brother finally told ya.”

Again, she declined to respond to his comment.

“It is a nice lil’ tale,” Ichimaru continued casually. “A poor girl, in a moment o’ weakness, leaves her baby sister to die so she can survive. The poor, guilt-ridden girl finds happiness in the arms of a noble, who saves her from a life of poverty by marrying her. And after fair maiden dies, the noble takes it upon himself to find the long-lost sister. He succeeds, an’ happy endings are all ‘round, jus’ the way I like it.”

Unsure of how to respond, Rukia continued to keep her silence.

“However,” Ichimaru said after a mildly dramatic pause. “There’s jus’ one thing’s that’s botherin’ me; a plot hole, ya might say. Yer sister abandoned ya in the Seventy-Eighth District, Inuzuri, am I right?”

“I have forgiven her for that,” Rukia finally said, a cold edge sliding into her voice. “So, please, do not try to rile me up by mentioning it.”

“Oh, I ain’t referrin’ to that part,” the hungry fox casually assured her. “I was jus’ wonderin’ how a helpless baby survived in one o’ the wildest and most dangerous districts o’ the Rukongai.”

The girl blinked. Now that he mentioned it, how _had_ she survived? Before joining up with Renji, she had always been alone.

“Perhaps someone else took care of me,” she suggested uncertainly.

“So what happened to ‘em?” Ichimaru asked. “Ya’d think that if they put that much work into savin’ ya in such a hostile area, they’d stick ‘round to make sure their efforts didn’t go to waste.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe they got killed themselves, and by that time I was old enough to fend for myself.”

“Then how ‘come ya don’t remember ‘em?”

This conversation was fast becoming disturbing. “I don’t know.”

“Well, if ya think o’ the answer, make sure to come an’ tell me, ne?” he grinned, and then gave her a pat on the head. “Now I gotta get goin’; Rangiku wants me home by dinnertime. Wanna join us?”

Rukia idly realized that she did not have to repress a shudder at the invitation. She had lowered her guard around him more than she thought.

“Thank you for the offer, but I must decline,” she answered. “I will be spending time with Nii-sama.”

“Good fer ya,” Ichimaru grinned. “Make sure to milk every ounce of brotherly love outta him.”

With that the captain casually walked away without so much as a goodbye, as though he had already forgotten their conversation. For her part Rukia gave a shake of her head. One thing at least hadn't changed: that man always left her feeling deeply perplexed.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Okay, so next chapter, I’ll be starting on the Bount Arc.

…Uso!

Don’t worry, none of the filler arcs will be featured as part of the main storyline, although I may be doing a separate short fic or a bonus chapter set during the Zanpakutō Rebellion, with Gin facing Shinsō.

As I put in author’s note in my oneshot “Closure,” I think a major part of the reason Hinamori took so long to get over Aizen in canon was because she never confronted him for herself to confirm the truth. Here, she hears Aizen’s intentions from his own mouth, and while this shakes her up badly, it means that she’ll be able to recover faster.

There’s also another factor in place. Aizen is a master manipulator, and Hinamori spent decades in his service. In canon, Aizen molded Hinamori into becoming so dependent on him that she would break if he left her. In this timeline, he does not warp her mind quite as much. Why not? Think about it: in canon, Aizen’s plans never deliberately place Rangiku in danger. Yes, she participates in battles, but that’s only to be expected. Aizen himself never lays a finger on her. It’s most certainly because he knows about Gin’s feelings towards her, and he does not want a certain snake to kill him. In this timeline, with Hitsugaya on his side, he makes sure that Hinamori has mental constitution enough to cope with him leaving.

Thank you for the reviews: **AKissAndAGunshot** , **Juliedoo** , **ImSeriousBro** , Raven’s Shadow, and anonymous guests.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

"Hey, look who's up and about," Kyōraku greeted warmly as he and Nanao saw Gin approach them on the Eighth Division's grounds. "Unohana-taichō cleared you?"

"Yep, yesterday," Gin answered. "Jus' came by to see how everyone was doin' here. Oh, an' I had somethin' to say to Nanao-chan."

"I have something that should be said as well," the lieutenant in question replied. "I apologize for the unfair accusations I leveled against you in our last meeting."

"Funny, that's related to what I wanted to talk to ya 'bout," the silver fox said.

"It is?" she blinked.

"Yeah, you were actually on the right track. I got a confession," Gin said. "Ya were right."

"What do you mean?"

"I tried to kill Aizen."

Nanao gave him a very flat look, while Kyōraku hid his smile behind his hat.

"But I wasn't actin' alone," Gin continued with his smile on its Mischievous setting. "Komamura-taichō was my accomplice in this nefarious attempted murder."

Nanao's eyes became narrower and narrower as her former lieutenant continued on. If you listened carefully, you could hear her teeth grinding together. As for Kyōraku, his shoulders shook more and more as he did his best to keep from bursting out laughing.

“But Aizen was a slippery eel, an’ he got away.”

After she was certain he was finished, she informed the trickster, "You are _not_ as funny as you think you are."

"Yes, I am."

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** You know, if it weren’t for Rangiku, the way I write Gin in this story would make one think his type are short, petite brunettes.

Something I wish I had thought to include before, but only occurred to me as I was re-reading this story: Rangiku smugly asking Gin, “Now, aren’t you glad you didn’t murder those guards who were escorting Rukia?”

Also, to let you know now, I ended up not covering the Zanpakutō Rebellion arc after all because the scenes I wanted to cover with Gin and Shinsō I managed to find a place elsewhere in this story.

I have also added a tag about Hitsugaya’s change in personality. The reason I didn’t think to before, aside from risking spoilers, is that this is the first time I’ve gotten such a negative reaction to it. There were certainly people lamenting his role as a traitor in the reviews over on FFN, but no one accused me of character bashing or asking that there be a warning label for it. That’s not to say I don’t think there weren’t people who dropped my story in disgust for it and just didn’t bother to tell me, but I kind of wish they did, so I would know why and made preparations accordingly when I started posting AGNH here.

I suppose part of the negative reaction could be due to AO3’s tag system, so that readers on this website are more accustomed to knowing what they’re getting into. Meanwhile, FFN just has the summary, and whatever warnings the author chooses to disclose, so that means readers there are more accustomed to risking reading things they don’t like when they click on a story. Strengths and weaknesses to both systems, but I forgot to take this into account when uploading my story here.

I kind of wish AO3 had a spoiler tag system similar to TV Tropes, where you could mark certain tags as spoilers, and hidden until a reader clicked on them.

Additional rant in defense of Hinamori: on top of the factors I mentioned above, in canon Hinamori is a few months behind everyone else in adapting to Aizen’s betrayal because she was in a coma. While everyone else has already adjusted to the new status quo and preparing for war against Aizen, Hinamori wakes up to find everything changed on her. When she has that infamous meeting with Hitsugaya and she asks him to “save” Aizen, she’s only been awake for a few days.

And note that despite wanting to “save” Aizen and blaming Ichimaru as the true mastermind, Hinamori _never_ expresses any inclination of betraying Soul Society (as some haters seem to think); she realizes that Aizen is on the wrong side of the war, she’s not that broken, but the true difficulty was her accepting that Aizen really was evil, not simply misled.

Okay, rant over.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to Tinko the Wolf, Noiram ARDA, FETHJJ GYHHJ, and Insecuriosity for leaving comments.


	8. Level Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinamori makes a move on Gin, and Renji has a rather shocking revelation.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 10/29/2013**

* * *

Hinamori finally managed to catch Kira while he was sober, working in his office at the Third. It didn't take much convincing at all to get him to agree to be her sparring partner. Perhaps he was simply being kind, knowing what she had been through lately.

And so, later that afternoon, Kira arrived at the woods around Sōkyoku Hill to find Hinamori sitting in a meditative pose with drawn sword over her knees. Since he didn’t know how long she was going to be in her inner world, he settled down and waited for her to awaken.

He had only been sitting a couple of minutes when the girl’s eyes fluttered open, and she looked over at him. “Hi, Kira-kun,” Hinamori smiled good-naturedly as she stood up and sheathed Tobiume, she continued, “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”

“You didn’t,” he assured her as he got to his feet, and then asked, “What type of training were you thinking about?”

“Mostly on my zanjustu, and also to see if I could refine my kidō,” Hinamori answered, and then hesitated before declaring, “And I’m going to start Bankai training.”

“There’s no way you’ll be able to finish by the time we go to war with Aizen,” Kira warned her.

“Maybe,” she admitted. “But even if I don’t get the second release, training myself on that path will get me stronger all the same.”

“True.”

“Maybe you should start Bankai training as well.”

“Might be a good idea,” Kira agreed. “I wonder who we should ask to teach us.”

“You could ask Gin.”

“Why would Ichimaru-tai-!”

Kira paused as he realized that Hinamori was not the one who made the suggestion.

The two friends belatedly jumped in surprise and turned towards the two top Third Division officers who had snuck up behind them.

“Would you stop doing that?!” the willowy girl hissed.

“Gin, you’re right,” Rangiku smirked. “This _is_ fun.”

“Why would Ichimaru-taichō wish to teach us?” Kira chose to ignore the “sneaking up on lieutenants” part and finished his prior question.

“Rangiku has also been takin’ Bankai trainin’,” the captain answered. “An’ I knew ya an’ Hinamori were talkin’ ‘bout doin’ the same, so we chewed it over an’ decided to help out.”

“Why?” Hinamori asked. “I mean, we would be grateful for your lessons, but I didn’t know you had taken an interest in us.”

“Jus’ ‘cause yer friends o’ Rangiku,” Ichimaru shrugged. “If that ain’t enough fer ya, then look at it this way: if all three o’ ya get Bankai, then that’ll look very good on my record as a captain. Haven’t even worn this haori for a century, an’ already I’ve trained three students to captain-class status.”

“He doesn’t care about his record,” his wife assured them. “He is doing this because I asked him to.”

“But it would still make great braggin’ material,” Ichimaru continued.

Kira and Hinamori looked at each other and both bowed to the captain.

“We would be honored if you would aid us in our lessons,” Kira said solemnly.

“All right, if ya really wanna know Bankai,” Ichimaru started, “first ya gotta learn how to fight.”

“We know that already!” Hinamori protested.

“No, ya just know where to swing yer sword. I’m talkin’ ‘bout actually usin’ yer head when yer fightin’.

“First an’ most important lesson: everythin’s fair game,” Ichimaru started off. “All those stories ya heard ‘bout heroes fightin’ honorably an’ playin’ fair are all a bunch o’ hooey. If winnin’ means stabbin’ someone in the back, ya do it. If it means kickin’ ‘em while they’re down, do it. If ya gotta play dead to get ‘em to let their guard down, _do it_.”

“’Strike where the enemy is weak,’” Hinamori recited.

“That’s right. Since ya got the basic idea down, I guess yer ready to put it into practice.”

One moment, Ichimaru was standing calmly in front of them.

The next, he was falling upon Hinamori with his zanpakutō drawn and raised high, ready to come down and cleave her in two.

* * *

Renji faced his opponent from the opposite side of the training arena.

“Ready?” he asked challengingly with Zabimaru held out in front of him, yet to be released.

“Yes,” Sasakibe answered simply, his own zanpakutō held up with one hand in front of his face.

“Howl, Zabimaru!”

“Pierce, Gonryōmaru!”

Just like in their first confrontation, Renji made a standard swing of his long, whip-like sword at his opponent. He knew that it most certainly would not score a hit, but he wanted to test how Sasakibe would respond. And just like in their last clash, the elder fighter parried the blade to the side. But this time, the counterattack was not in the form of kidō. He disappeared in a buzz of shunpo, and suddenly reappeared right in front of Renji with his rapier thrust forward.

Now that he was up at full power, Renji could follow Sasakibe’s movements. Even so, the fencer was quick; while Renji just managed to sidestep the blade just in time, he still received a scratch across his chest. He flash-stepped to a good distance away and held a hand to the wound.

“First blood to me,” Sasakibe announced.

“I’ve gotten cuts worse than this handling paperwork,” Renji scoffed.

“Still counts,” and he held up the point of his rapier to show the tip was now stained crimson.

“Well, that’s the only blood your sword will get with in this fight,” the spiky-haired warrior boasted, and swung Zabimaru once again.

Sasakibe sidestepped the attack, and attempted to thrust forward once more.

Renji took exception to that, and backed up outside of his opponent’s range. Keeping his distance from his opponent would be the key to winning this battle.

“Everyone knows that if two warriors are of equal skill, then the sword with the longer reach wins,” Renji said as he continued to move back and whip Zabimaru back and forth.

“There are two problems with that statement,” Sasakibe replied as he countered each strike with deft movements of his rapier. “First is your assumption that we are of equal skill.”

“Well, that's mighty big of you to admit,” the cocky combatant taunted. “So what’s the second problem?”

“What makes you think _your_ reach is longer?”

A glint of light on Sasakibe’s zanpakutō was the only warning before a bolt of electricity crackled from the tip of his rapier and connected with Renji’s chest. He fell back to the ground in a twitching heap as his senses were overloaded with electrical pulses. Managing to recover after a moment, he leapt back up to his feet to look at his opponent in disbelief.

Sasakibe was in a fencer’s lunge position, his sword pointed directly at him, and he had a subtle but confident smirk on his face as he said, “Touché.”

* * *

Hinamori’s eyes bulged, and she squeaked out a rather ignoble “EEP!” as she jumped to one side and narrowly escaping the blade that had threatened her with bifurcation. She tried to draw Tobiume, but another swing from Ichimaru prevented her from doing anything besides avoiding the sharp edge of the blade.

As she dodged each successive strike, Hinamori knew that Ichimaru was not trying to kill her. For one, it was highly improbable that he would murder a fellow shinigami in front of his wife. Second, she knew that a captain like Ichimaru could kill her in the time it took her to blink, if he actually wanted to. The fact that she could follow his movements meant that he was _letting_ her see him, indicating that his intent was to train her… harshly.

However, it was pretty hard to tell her brain that he wasn’t out to kill her when that deceptively short sword of his was always within inches of slicing her open. That calm yet unnerving smile on his face did not help, either.

She needed to do something, anything to give her a second’s moment to draw her zanpakutō.

She tried flash-stepping away, but Ichimaru was always right in front of her, not giving her an inch.

A desperate idea occurred to Hinamori. She ducked below the next swing and crouched with her hands and feet on the ground. With all her might, Hinamori jumped into the air, swung her foot up, and kicked a certain vulnerable part of Ichimaru’s anatomy.

She grinned triumphantly as she saw Ichimaru drop his smile and raise his eyebrows in surprise, before she realized two very important things. First, she was still in midair, which meant that very shortly, she would be reuniting with the ground in a rough manner. Second and more urgently, the foot she had used to assault Ichimaru’s groin was suddenly registering a _massive_ amount of pain.

True enough, Hinamori landed on the grass beneath her quite ungracefully, and she winced as her bottom hit the earth, but that was rather minor compared to the agony her foot was in. 

“OW!” she cried helplessly, and brought her hands forward to gingerly massage her aching limb. It was as if she had launched her foot at the outer walls of the Seireitei instead of what _should_ have been the most vulnerable spot on Ichimaru’s person. She could still move her toes, so that meant her foot was not broken, but that was little comfort right now.

The sound of uproarious laughter caught her attention, and Hinamori turned her head to see Rangiku as the source, bent over at the waist while holding her sides. Kira’s expression of shocked horror would have made her laugh too, if she was not in so much pain at the moment. She imagined that if this was a manga from the world of the living, then Kira’s jaw would be on the ground, and his visible eye would be the size of his head.

A soft series of chuckles redirected her attention back to her sparring partner, and for a moment, Hinamori was afraid Ichimaru would take advantage of her hapless position to attack. But apparently not; the captain was holding himself upright by leaning on a nearby tree. She realized it was not due to any injury; she knew that it was because Ichimaru found the whole thing as funny as his wife did. If Hinamori’s kick had done any damage to him, it evidently did not do anything to diminish his humor.

“What do you have under those hakama?” she asked crankily.

She blushed belatedly at how that question sounded, and the feeling was reinforced by the sound of two lieutenants hitting the ground. A glance told her that Rangiku was now guffawing so hard that she had collapsed to the ground in tears. Kira had just fallen on his rear in shock.

She quickly looked back at Captain Ichimaru, and was only briefly afraid that he would be offended by her inquiry. She knew that as easygoing as Ichimaru was, such a question would likely only amuse him. As she saw his face, she knew she was right. Unfortunately.

Why was this unfortunate? Because as Hinamori saw the vulpine grin, a new and more terrifying prospect emerged: he would actually _answer her question_.

“I don’t want to know!” she zipped her hands from her foot to her ears. A potentially broken foot would be a trifle compared to the damage her mind would undergo by whatever came out of the fox’s mouth next. “Idon’twanttoknow! _Idon’twanttoknow!”_

* * *

The taunt was enough to snap Renji back into action, and he counterattacked with a swing of Zabimaru. While Sasakibe’s zanpakutō ability was a shock (pun unintended), he was very far from admitting defeat. Besides, it was hardly the biggest surprise he had learned recently.

Sasakibe sidestepped the attack and pointed his blade at Renji again, who reflexively flash-stepped to a position to Sasakibe’s left, and was immediately glad he had done so. Had that high-voltage attack struck the spot he had vacated only a second before, it might have been all over. All the same, a grin returned to his face. He may not be swift enough to dodge lightning, but he could move faster than his opponent could aim.

Renji decided to change tactics, and contracted his sword to its original length as he flash-stepped right in front of his opponent. He brought his saw-blade down, but Sasakibe had whipped his rapier to nudge the larger sword to the side and miss its target. Before Renji could try another swing, his sparring partner had already pointed the tip of his rapier at his torso, and a spark flew off the blade.

The shock was far less powerful than the first; it was barely more than the jolt one received upon touching an object charged with static electricity. Still, the lightning poke reminded informed Renji that if this had been a real fight, he would have been paralyzed for at least a few seconds, and then summarily killed. Close quarters combat was not as good an idea as he thought it would be, though it was a better strategy than fighting from a distance.

So where exactly did that leave him?

Even though this was just a sparring match, Renji did not want to lose. He wanted assurance that he was strong enough to protect Rukia. While his fight with Captain Kuchiki had shown that he was still years away from defeating an experienced captain-class opponent, he still wanted to prove, to no one but himself, that he could at least beat the other lieutenants. But Sasakibe was too fast, and stronger than he had anticipated. Even at full health, there was no way Renji could beat him with just Shikai.

“BANKAI!” Renji shouted.

Sasakibe’s eyes widened and he braced himself against the explosion of reiatsu

“Hihio Zabimaru,” a confident voice declared proudly from within the winding serpent's bone coils, which separated to reveal their master bedecked in his mantle.

“Bankai?” the elder lieutenant inquired with a raised eyebrow as he regained his composure. “For a sparring match?”

“Well, you were tougher than I thought you’d be,” Renji admitted with a confident grin.

“Even so, your second release is not something you should be using so lightly,” Sasakibe said disapprovingly.

“I think you’re just scared of losing,” the Baboon King taunted.

“Facing a man in Bankai with just a Shikai, and you think I am _scared_ of losing?” the fencer asked wryly. “I’m not like one of the elder captains, who could defeat even a well-trained Bankai with just their first release. This fight will be yours.”

The fencer then lifted his rapier and pointed it at Renji and continued, “However, I will make you _earn_ it.”

The Sixth’s lieutenant saw a spark fly off Sasakibe’s blade, and he immediately remembered what followed. In response, Renji had Hihio Zabimaru charge forward. It was quite fortunate that he did, for the instant after the skeletal snake advanced a bolt of electrical power emerged from the tip of the rapier and struck the living whip directly on its crown.

While Sasakibe’s attack was blocked by the Bankai, Renji was surprised when Hihio Zabimaru’s charge lost momentum and crashed to the ground in several pieces. Even though it was only a temporary setback, as he could easily call all the pieces back together, it still unnerved him that Sasakibe had enough power to do that to his skeletal serpent.

At this point he mentally smacked himself in the head. Sasakibe’s zanpakutō was a lightning-type; when he had unleashed that bolt at him, the electrical energy had disturbed the reiatsu bonds that kept Hihio Zabimaru in one piece. Additionally, it only made sense that the elder lieutenant’s attacks would be stronger now. Earlier, when it was just shikai-on-shikai, they were only sparring, and did not have any real intent to hurt each other. It was only natural that Sasakibe’s electrical attack would be only enough to stun him for a few moments. Now, when Renji was in Bankai, Sasakibe no longer had a reason to hold back on the amount of power he put into those attacks, since he did not have to worry about them seriously harming his opponent.

And Renji had to admit, there was _a lot_ of power. He reevaluated his opinion of Sasakibe, and realized that this quiet, lesser-known man might be one of the stronger lieutenants of the Gotei 13.

Bringing his thoughts back to the here and now, a much more cautions Renji mentally called the pieces of Hihio Zabimaru to life again. The vertebrae of the serpent rose into the air and surrounded Sasakibe, the spikes pointed at their prey. He did not let them attack yet, merely letting the unspoken threat ring out to his opponent.

The golden-eyed lieutenant looked at the swarm of spears surrounding him, and then at the man controlling them.

“I yield,” Sasakibe said as he lowered his zanpakutō and returned it to its sealed form.

While he was disappointed that the fight had not lasted longer, Renji accepted the surrender and reverted back to his normal state of power.

“Good job,” the former vagabond said graciously as he stuck out his hand to Sasakibe.

“And you,” the elder man took the offered hand and gave it a single slow but firm shake.

* * *

“That,” Rangiku gasped, still recovering her breath with deep intakes of air after her long laughing session, “was… the… funniest thing… I’ve seen… in years.”

“Gotta admit, Hinamori-chan,” Ichimaru said in a voice laced with amusement, “I didn’t think ya’d be ruthless ‘nough to kick me below the belt on yer first spar.”

“You said attack weak points,” she replied defensively as Kira applied some basic healing kidō to her foot. While she had not broken it, it was still sore, so Kira used what he recalled from his time in the Fourth to assuage the pain.

“An’ I’m very glad that ya took my lesson to heart so quickly,” Ichimaru congratulated. “There’s one other thin’ I want ya two to work on before I start teachin’ ya Bankai.”

“What is it?” Kira asked.

“Make sure ya know yer zanpakutō first.”

Kira and Hinamori blinked in confusion, while Rangiku groaned as she rolled her eyes, and lost the rest of her mirth.

“Gettin’ ‘nough power to materialize yer zanpakutō is jus’ part o’ the process,” Ichimaru explained. “Ya also need to be in tune with ‘em. They’re a part o’ yer soul, an’ so in order to make ‘em surrender the final release, ya need to _know_ yerself. That’s what Rangiku’s caught up on; she’s almost at the point she can materialize, but she can’t stop arguin’ with Haineko long ‘nough to really talk about how they can do Bankai.”

“It’s not my fault she’s being difficult!”

“Ya see? If ya don’t understand yer zanpakutō an’ yerself, you’ll _never_ get Bankai.”

“Okay, I think it’s time I took Hinamori-kun to the Fourth to check out her foot,” Rangiku drawled as she picked up Hinamori in her arms.

“Thank you for teaching us, Ichimaru-taichō,” Hinamori called as she was carried away.

“My pleasure,” the unusual sensei replied.

“I think I will take my leave as well,” Kira said. “Thank you for…”

“Lesson ain’t over yet,” Ichimaru turned towards the blond lieutenant. “I wanna know what you’ve learned at the Tenth.”

A shiver went down Kira’s spine, and he realized that he was in for a _long_ training session.

* * *

 _“What was_ THAT _?”_ Gonryōmaru demanded. _“You could have taken that little upstart if you had used your Bankai! Why did you yield?!”_

 _“I have not used my Bankai in combat in two thousand years,”_ Chōjirō replied calmly. “ _I will not use it just to win a sparring match.”_

 _“THIS is why nobody knows who you are!”_ the zanpakutō lamented. _“How is it that I’m stuck with a boring nobody for a master?”_

_“I did not become Yamamoto’s lieutenant for fame and glory.”_

_“Oh, I’ve LONG given up on fame and glory,”_ Gonryōmaru snapped. _“Right now, I’ll settle for simple recognition.”_

 _“I have recognition,”_ Chōjirō said.

_“From WHOM, exactly?”_

_“Eijisai-dono, for one.”_

_“I swear, you’re worse than Ukitake’s Third Seats! And Yamamoto’s going to be the ONLY one who will know you if you keep going on like this. I bet that if you were the one nailed to the wall instead of Aizen, people would be saying, ‘Hey, who’s that, and why’s he wearing a lieutenant’s badge?’”_

_“That was not Aizen, if you will recall; that was only an illusion.”_

_“YOU MISS THE POINT! Nobody knows who you are! Nobody would notice if you suddenly died on them for whatever reason! Can being boring be a cause of death, by the way?”_

_“You’ve always been melodramatic.”_

_“Okay, now I KNOW you’re deliberately avoiding the issue,”_ Gonryōmaru growled. “ _The only reason Abarai will be remembering you is because you managed to stop him from rescuing Kuchiki Rukia! And now that he has ‘proven’ himself stronger, he’s going to promptly forget your existence again.”_

_“It doesn’t matter to me.”_

_“It matters to ME! Why aren’t you taking MY feelings into consideration?”_

_“You are unusually persistent on this topic today, aren’t you?”_

_“That’s because for the first time in our existence, someone other than your precious Eijisai-dono looked at us with respect! Think of how much more respect Abarai would have if he knew we had Bankai!”_

_“I’m not going to release my Bankai just to create some awe,”_ Chōjirō said firmly.

_“FINE! Then look at it this way: training.”_

A moment of hesitation, and the zanpakutō knew that he had found an opening.

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Abarai has only recently attained Bankai. You haven’t even used yours against an opponent in two thousand years. Aren’t you a bit worried that your skills might be a little rusty? Practicing with Abarai will help him improve his Bankai, while giving us a brush-up on ours at the same time. We’re going to need all the training we can get if we’re going to win this war against Aizen, you know.”_

_“He can improve his Bankai with his teacher.”_

_“And who might that be, exactly?”_

_“Madarame Ikkaku,”_ the lieutenant answered without missing a beat. _“Kuchiki-taichō was not aware of Abarai’s Bankai until the day of Kuchiki Rukia’s execution. The only other captain Abarai would be close enough to seek lessons from is Kenpachi, and he does not even know the name of his zanpakutō. That leaves us with Madarame Ikkaku.”_

 _“Think he’ll ever figure out that his ‘secret’ is not such a big secret after all?”_ Gonryōmaru asked with a nearly audible smirk.

_“I hope so, otherwise it will get him killed one day.”_

_“Still, back to the important topic, just because Madarame taught Abarai Bankai does not mean they’ll continue to practice with each other. After all, Bankai training is not subtle, and I doubt that they will have time to undergo secret fighting sessions.”_

_“Perhaps, but I do not see why_ I _must be his substitute sensei,”_ Chōjirō countered.

 _“Will you stop listening to your stubborn streak for one minute and listen to_ me _instead?! Sparring with Abarai will do more than help the both of us improve our Bankai. With Aizen’s betrayal, the Gotei 13 needs to work closer together. By having the lieutenants of both the First and the Sixth interact more regularly, it would mean stronger inter-division ties.”_

Chōjirō paused as he thought carefully over his zanpakutō’s words.

 _“I suppose you have a point there,”_ he relented. _‘I’ll ask Abarai-san if he’ll agree to another sparring match. But I will not use this as a publicity stunt.”_

 _“It’s a step in the right direction,”_ Gonryōmaru said, apparently satisfied for now.

* * *

“Abarai-san.”

Renji looked up from his paperwork with a raised eyebrow at the man who had just called his attention. “Sasakibe-san?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Would you be up for another sparring session after you have finished your duties for the day?” the elder lieutenant inquired.

“Oh, I get it; you want a chance to regain your honor,” Renji grinned.

Sasakibe frowned, and attempted to clarify, “No. I simply think that with the upcoming war, we should be practicing to get stronger.”

“Oh. There’s that, too,” Renji said sheepishly, and then cleared his throat nervously. “So, uh, where do you want to spar? Same place?”

“We’ll train in the First Division’s training grounds this time,” Sasakibe answered.

“Really?” The answer took him by surprise. Outsiders rarely entered the grounds of the First Division, except for captains and less often lieutenants going to meetings with Yamamoto.

“Wait outside the gates of the First Division, and I will lead you in,” the other man said. “Will that be agreeable?”

“Uh, sure,” Renji replied. “I’ll head over there after I’m done here for the day.”

“Very good,” Sasakibe nodded. “I will see you then.”

* * *

Rikichi entered the Sixth Division’s head office with a collection of forms for the captain to fill out, and walked in just in time to hear Captain Kuchiki ask Abarai, “What did he want?”

“He just wanted to arrange another sparring match between us,” the lieutenant told him. “It’ll be down at the First Division after I’m finished with my duties today.”

“A sparring match?” Rikichi said excitedly. “With who?”

“Sasakibe-fukutaichō,” Abarai answered.

“Who?”

“The lieutenant of the First Division.”

“Oh. I’m sure you’ll win, Abarai-san!”

“Yeah, but only if I use both releases,” his hero confessed. “I gotta admit, he’s tough and fast enough that I don’t think I’d ever beat him with just my first release.”

“Well, good thing you have Bankai!” Rikichi laughed.

“You may leave, Abarai Renji,” Kuchiki intoned as he handed over the completed paperwork.

“Yes, sir,” his lieutenant bowed and said a quick “bye” to Rikichi on his way out of the captain’s office.

“You admire Abarai Renji,” the noble captain stated.

“Uh, yes, sir,” Rikichi jumped at being addressed.

“Every individual who has ever attained Bankai has had their name written down in the history of Soul Society,” the lord continued on. “Yesterday I personally added Abarai Renji to that list.”

Rikichi paid close attention to his captain; he suspected that the man was not finished saying whatever it was he wanted to say.

“As the head of the Kuchiki Clan, one of my duties is to memorize the name of every single person who has ever attained Bankai,” Kuchiki continued. “And I can tell you that the name Sasakibe Chōjirō Tadaoki is near the beginning of that list.”

The younger man gaped.

“Why didn’t you tell Abarai-san that?” the unseated officer asked.

“While Abarai Renji is a good officer, with his courage and determination,” the captain answered. “He needs to learn to not underestimate his opponents. This will be a good opportunity for him to learn that lesson without endangering his life.”

Kuchiki then leveled his gaze directly at Rikichi, and the unseated shinigami instinctively glanced downward to avoid the insubordinate action of looking a superior officer, and a noble to boot, in the eye.

“That is why you are not to inform Abarai Renji of this until after his sparring match with Sasakibe-fukutaichō.”

“Yes, sir,” Rikichi said.

“You are dismissed.”

“Yes, sir,” the spiritual featherweight bowed and left the room.

He had to talk with somebody about what he had just learned. Since Kuchiki had ordered him not to tell Abarai, the lieutenant was off the list, but there were still the other unseated officers…

* * *

Kiyone rushed through the Thirteenth Division with the news in mind. She had heard numerous rumors over the years, but none were as incredible as the piece she had just heard in her mind. She _had_ to get to Captain Ukitake as quickly as possible, as he was the only one she trusted to dispel or confirm this rumor. If she recalled correctly, her captain was currently in the gardens relaxing.

Of course, big stupid Sentaro had been with her at the time she had heard that newest bit of gossip, so that meant he, too, was now rushing to beat her to Captain Ukitake presence to inquire about the same thing that was on her mind.

They found him in the company of his oldest friend, Captain Kyōraku, and Nanao.

“Ukitake-taichō!” the two Third Seats chorused as they dropped in front of the object of their worship.

“Kiyone? Sentaro? What is it?” the confused captain asked.

“Does Sasakibe-fukutaichō have Bankai?” they chorused their question.

“Don’t copy me!” Kiyone shouted.

“I didn’t! YOU copied ME!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yes you did!”

“Please don’t argue,” Ukitake interrupted.

Immediately the bickering pair ceased their argument and bowed to their captain. “Many apologies, Ukitake-taichō!” Needless to say, this was also spoken simultaneously.

“Now, why do you wish to know about Sasakibe-san’s Bankai?” the white-haired man continued.

“So he DOES have one?” Kiyone asked in shock.

* * *

Rangiku had been a good friend to take Hinamori to the Fourth, not to mention stay by her side and keep her company while they waited for a healer to enter the room and treat the petite girl’s foot. But Hinamori thought it a bit suspicious that the moment she felt Unohana’s reiatsu approach, Rangiku had to “use the restroom.”

“Your appointment with me is not for another two days. So why are you here now?”

Hinamori whimpered just a little upon hearing Unohana’s voice in a dangerously placid tone. A blush crept onto the girl’s cheeks, and she mumbled out her answer.

“Please repeat that, Hinamori-kun, so that I can hear you,” Unohana told her.

The girl swallowed and repeated herself just within audible range. “I, uh, tried to kick Ichimaru-taichō in the…”

She could not finish the sentence. However, judging by the blush, Unohana could guess the answer.

“I see,” she smiled in amusement. “You kicked him in the groin.”

“Please, Unohana-taichō,” Hinamori begged as she covered her hands with her face. “I _really_ don’t want to talk about it.”

The healer gave the girl some mercy.

“Let me see that foot,” Unohana beckoned.

Hinamori nodded mutely and the red receded from her face as the older woman walked over to her bed and examined her injury.

“I am very curious, however,” Unohana spoke as she began the healing process, “as to why you would do such a thing, and how Ichimaru-taichō reacted afterwards.”

As the young lieutenant reluctantly recounted as to how she tried to emasculate Ichimaru Gin, Unohana worked on restoring Hinamori’s injured limb to its proper state.

“And while I can understand Ichimaru-taichō’s desire to train you for the upcoming war, I will make sure he knows that training you too hard will cause you further harm,” Unohana concluded. “And also inform him that due to his own recent injuries, Ichimaru-taichō should not be pushing himself too far, either.”

“I will, Unohana-taichō,” Hinamori accepted.

“Captain, there you are!”

Unohana and Hinamori turned to see Isane running towards them.

“Is it true, Unohana-taichō?” the vertically advantaged lieutenant gasped.

“Isane, catch your breath, and then _calmly_ tell me exactly what you wish to know,” the matronly woman instructed.

Her subordinate nodded and took several deep breaths. After she had managed to restore her heart rate to a more normal level, she asked, “Does Sasakibe-san really have a Bankai?”

* * *

Chōjirō frowned as he and Abarai entered the First Division’s training arena and observed the crowd of officers from other divisions sitting on the sidelines. He saw the captains of the Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Eleventh, and Thirteenth, along with their lieutenants, and in the case of the latter two divisions, the Third Seats as well. Also present were the lieutenants from the Third and Fifth, and to Chōjirō’s surprise, he recognized other officers from the First Division standing off on their own, separate from the rest of the other shinigami. Unlike his zanpakutō, the First Division’s lieutenant did not like performing in front of an audience. He preferred being in the background, doing whatever was required of him out of sight of the masses.

He sent an inquiring glance at his sparring partner.

“Don’t look at me,” Abarai held up his hands defensively. “I didn’t know they were going to be here.”

“Nor did I,” a deceptively mellow voice grumbled behind them.

Abarai jumped to stand at attention when he recognized the speaker, while Chōjirō did the same in a calmer manner.

Captain-Commander Yamamoto, of course, did not look surprised by this.

“Why did you not inform me of this?” the head-captain inquired.

“I did not realize that a sparring match would be high enough on your priority list to attend,” the white-haired lieutenant answered.

“Any duel with you as a participant is one I dare not miss,” the general replied. “Carry on.” He strode past them, every other footstep accentuated by a tap of his cane on the ground, to position himself in a spot between the members of the First Division and the rest of the Gotei 13 officers who were present.

“No pressure, huh?” Abarai muttered. “I mean we only have the majority of captains and lieutenants watching to see how our duel goes.”

“I suppose we should go get it over with,” Chōjirō murmured back in agreement, and then moved to the other side of the sparring arena.

Renji could honestly sympathize with his sparring partner. He could tell that Sasakibe was uncomfortable with being watched by so many of his peers and superiors; perhaps that was why he had never called much attention to himself. Renji was not bothered by having an audience like the First’s lieutenant obviously was, but when two of the spectators were their captains, his nerves got in the mood to want to run away. It didn't make sense that he should feel embarrassed; he was the one who wielded Bankai in this fight; his Bankai whose power could already be attested to by his captain, so why did he feel this way?

Maybe it was out of sympathy. Sasakibe was strong, but he was the weaker of the two, and Renji was about to prove it in front of his captain. He gave a brief thought to going easy on the older man, but decided quickly that it would have been an insult. He would fight, he would win, and his opponent would put up a good resistance in the process.

This time, it was Sasakibe who made the first move; as soon as they had both released their zanpakutō, the fencer had flash-stepped directly in front of him and plunged the tip of his blade forward.

Renji just managed to sidestep the thrust in time, but Sasakibe’s follow-up attacks were rapid and persistent. It was all the Sixth Lieutenant could do to block or parry the rapier which threatened to perforate him. With each attack that came within inches of hitting home, Renji noticed the difference from the last time they had fought and now. In their prior sparring session, the golden-eyed man had been more testing and probing in his attacks. Now, Sasakibe’s was on the offensive as he aggressively thrust his rapier forward and attempted to turn Renji into shish-kebab.

Finally, Renji saw an opening. Just as Sasakibe finished lunging forward, the brawny warrior pulled his left fist back and drove it directly into his face. His adversary reeled back, both from the fist’s force, and surprise that a fist had managed to connect.

Renji grinned at taking his opponent off guard, and followed up by whipping Zabimaru out.

To his credit, Sasakibe recovered well enough in time to parry the attack. He blocked the next two swings as effectively as he had the first, and then a spark seemed to light off the fencer’s blade.

Renji’s grin fell, and he jumped out of the way with the knowledge of what would come next. A jagged line of white electricity scorched the ground where the red-haired man had just leapt from, and there were some gasps of surprise from the audience at the sight of Sasakibe’s Shikai ability.

Renji attempted a counterattack, but each time he tried, the First Lieutenant sent out a measured streak of lightning to keep him moving and to prevent him from going on the offensive. As he flash-stepped away from another electrical bolt, Renji knew he was going to have to level up sooner than he thought if he still wanted to win this fight.

“Bankai!”

The explosion of reiatsu forced Sasakibe to leap backwards to a safe distance.

“Hihio Zabimaru!” Renji announced with no small amount of pride in his voice

He noticed in his peripheral vision that the spectators were looking at him in varying levels of interest and awe. Renji only let himself have a brief moment of satisfaction at their reactions, and focused his attention on his opponent.

To his confusion, Sasakibe was not looking at him in surprise or disapproval like in their prior fight. As a matter of fact, it seemed just the opposite; it looked like he _wanted_ Renji to go Bankai. The Baboon King’s puzzlement was compounded when his opponent raised his zanpakutō into the air, the tip pointed at the sky. Then, in a voice full of subtle but immovable resolution, he declared, “Bankai!”

_What?!_

* * *

With the declaration of a second release, Gonryōmaru transformed into a bolt of lightning in his hand, and shot into the sky. Then the jagged line of white-hot energy left his grip and ascended upwards to form a shallow dome over his head. An instant later, bars of electricity struck the ground from the edge of the dome, and formed a cage to protect him.

“Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū!”

Chōjirō did not realize how much he had missed the feeling of being in Bankai, the delicious high of having so much raw power at his fingertips. As the Golden Royal Villa of the Stern Spirit reached into the heavens, that power only multiplied. In truth, the majority of the strength behind his attacks was generated by the weather. He may have brought the storm clouds into existence, but those clouds were the power source for his electrical defense and attack. The only reiatsu that was needed while he was in Bankai was the energy to keep the storm going. While that was still represented a great amount, it was still less than most other captains required to maintain their most powerful release, which meant he could also fight with his Bankai longer than most.

This also meant that he had a nearly infinite pool of electrical energy from which to draw his attacks, since they came from the storm and not from his own power.

As the rain began to fall on the sparring arena, Abarai Renji stood still and stared at him like he had just broken some law of nature.

“Pay attention, Abarai!” the storm lord commanded, and accentuated his order by mentally calling down a bolt of lightning a few feet to his opponent’s left. He had trained enough that gesturing with his hands was an unnecessary motion.

The white flash had already registered to the redhead’s eyes and thunder assaulted his ears before he jumped and whipped his head towards the source, only to find a black mark on the ground still smoking. Abarai’s eyes snapped back to his adversary. His eyes were still wide, but it seemed that his focus was now on the battle.

And focused it was; now that it was clear to Renji that he was dealing with an equal or superior opponent, he threw his strength into Hihio Zabimaru’s next charge.

Chōjirō calmly stood in place and waited for the snake-monkey to connect their attack on him. The skull crashed into the bars of lightning standing between it and the lieutenant inside, and with a roar resembling pain, the skeleton fell apart. That was part of Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū’s defense: he was protected inside his cage of lightning from most forms of attack.

While Abarai looked in horror at his Bankai’s inability to dent his enemy’s defenses, Chōjirō wondered what his next move should be. His original plan had been to simply try out Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū, and make sure he could still use him efficiently. But now that he was in Bankai, Chōjirō realized that there was very little he could do without causing serious harm to Abarai. While the Sixth’s lieutenant was capable of the legendary release, he was still too new at it for them to practice together safely.

So the ancient man decided that it would be better if the sparring session ended sooner rather than later.

He sent another mental call to have a lightning bolt strike the ground, this time just to Abarai’s right. While the attack did not directly make contact, the proximity to the super-hot bolt made him jump instinctively away, and the deep rumble that immediately followed the strike deafened him for a moment.

“This time, Abarai-san,” Chōjirō called out so he could be heard over the pouring rain and retreating thunder, “the victory is mine. Yield!”

Renji seemed to have enough of his hearing back to catch his opponent’s command, as evidenced by the narrowed eyes of defiance. Then there was a pause of contemplation, and then a nod of acceptance. Abarai relaxed his posture, and sealed Hihio Zabimaru into their original katana form.

In response, the rain stopped, and the clouds lightened to whiter colors and then drifted away, and there was a sealed blade at Chōjirō’s belt again.

When he had last released Bankai to fight someone, it had been against Yamamoto, two thousand years ago. Then, he was a young man eager to prove his worth to the legendary demigod. In that battle, there was no question as to who would win; the only uncertainty was whether the youngster would actually be strong enough to make Yamamoto bleed.

Now, the old lieutenant realized he was in Yamamoto’s position; he was the elder testing out the Bankai of an ambitious young man.

His musings were interrupted as he noticed his sparring partner march forward. It seemed that the shock of his second release had yet to fade from Abarai’s mind, for the first words out of his mouth were, “If you have Bankai, then why don’t you become a captain?”

“I don’t want to.”

Abarai’s jaw dropped. It was quite amusing to watch, but Chōjirō managed to conceal his humor.

“But there are three divisions that need captains!” the young fighter protested.

“My place is in the First Division, as Yamamoto-dono’s right arm,” he said firmly. “Captaincy is not, and never will be, my future.”

The younger lieutenant was silent for a moment as he stared at Sasakibe.

“But… I thought that…” Renji said hesitantly.

“You thought that everyone who attained Bankai went on to become a captain when a position opened up,” he finished. “That is true for the most part. However, there have been a few others besides myself who, for a number of reasons, chose not to seek out promotion.”

Deciding to let the youngster contemplate his words (and hopefully pass them along to a certain Third Seat), Chōjirō decided to end their conversation. He gave a bow of respect to his opponent and then walked away.

Before he had gotten too far out of earshot from the rest of the spectators, he heard his captain call his name.

“Chōjirō,” Yamamoto intoned to his lieutenant. “I could feel that you were not working at full power against Abarai-fukutaichō.”

“No,” the eldest lieutenant confirmed. “I did not want to kill him, after all.”

Yamamoto hummed in agreement.

“I do believe the time has come to test to truth of your vow,” the captain-commander spoke. “I wish to see if your Bankai is still as childish as it was two thousand years ago.”

Chōjirō smiled.

“Where and when, Eijisai-dono?”

* * *

 **Author’s Note:** The scene between Hinamori and Gin is based on Hiyori attempting the same maneuver on Urahara, with the same results. My explanation is that it’s the same reason Ichigo was unable to cut Kenpachi in their first meeting; there was simply too much of a power gap between the two.

In case you’re wondering, no, I will not be giving Rangiku, Hinamori or Kira a Bankai in this story. While details of Rangiku’s spiritual strength and how they were affected by being stolen for the Hogyoku is unknown, for purposes of this story, I will hold that she is strong enough that she will eventually attain Bankai, but not during the course of this fanfic. As for Hinamori and Kira, they will definitely not be getting a Bankai in this story, and it’s up in the air if they even have enough power for materialization.

When going into the finer details of Sasakibe’s Bankai, I basically asked myself this question: how do I make the Bankai that put a scar on Yamamoto’s head in its very first battle appropriately awesome?

If you think that Sasakibe is overpowered, then here’s some food for thought: the energy output of your average thunderstorm is about the same as that of an atomic bomb. If that’s not enough, then consider Sasakibe’s main attack: a lightning bolt. It travels about one-third the speed of light, and has a temperature of five thousand Kelvin. In other words, Sasakibe has an attack almost six hundred times faster than Kamishini no Yari, and ten times hotter than the surface of the sun (Yamamoto’s Zanka no Tachi is the temperature of the sun’s core, about fifteen _million_ Kelvin).

Thanks to all who left reviews: **The Lord of War** , **Juliedoo** , **TykkiMikk** , **4fireking** , **TakaSasuke** , **Nnix Ame** , and anonymous guests.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

Rangiku hummed happily as she walked into SWA headquarters with her prize. Their current project had been to take pictures of different celebrities in the Gotei 13 in order to raise money for their organization. She had, of course, been assigned Gin as her target, and he had gleefully agreed to their session. She had not gotten much sleep last night, but it was most certainly worth it.

The strawberry-blonde woman dropped her prize on Nanao’s desk and waited for her reaction.

“What do you think?” she smirked. “Pretty good, eh?”

A vein on Nanao’s forehead throbbed dangerously, and her glasses attained a dangerous shine as she looked over the pictures.

“Rangiku-san,” the vice-president said in a deceptively calm voice. “The assignment was to have you take pictures of celebrities, _not_ have the celebrities take pictures of _you_.”

“Eh?” Rangiku blinked in confusion.

“ _And we certainly cannot print nude pictures of anyone!”_

Rangiku grabbed the pictures and inspected them for herself. Just as Nanao had growled, they were all explicit pictures of her.

“Gin…,” she growled through clenched teeth. He was _so_ exiled to the couch for the next month (not that they had one, but it was the thought that counted).

Meanwhile, back at the captain’s quarters, Gin was burning all the nude pictures of himself and Rangiku (except one of the latter that he thought was quite good), as a deterrent for Angry Wife. He also made sure to save the shirtless photos of himself so he could give them to Rangiku later, not only as an additional deterrent for Angry Wife, but also so she would finally see the humor in his little joke on her.

* * *

 **AO3 Commentary:** I think my favorite single line in the reviews left on this story over on FFN was one person describing my portrayal of Sasakibe as, “a lethal gentleman, like Clint Eastwood as Mr. Darcy.”

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mention to Noiram ARDA for leaving a comment.


	9. Arrancar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gin and his advance team of shinigami arrive in Karakura Town, and have a taste of the war yet to come.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 11/5/2013**

* * *

Ichigo was annoyed.

He was somewhat okay with the team of shinigami showing up at his school. He was even fine with Rukia kidnapping him from his body, because at least she got him out of the blue funk he was in. However, he was _not_ okay with Rangiku, Renji, Yumichika, and Ikkaku invading his room by coming in through the ceiling light. Could they not have used the window like Rukia normally did?

Ichigo belatedly realized that his life was far too weird if he considered his window to be an acceptable entrance to his bedroom.

“What’d you do to my light?” he demanded of his intruders.

“We tried installing a new light bulb,” Rangiku joked.

“With what?” the follicle-lacking fighter asked as he hung down from the ceiling.

Rangiku frowned at his obliviousness, and pushed him in the head, sending him on a premature journey to the floor.

“Don’t be so uptight,” she scolded Ichigo.

“I’m surprised that your joker of a husband didn’t come down with you,” the teenager scowled.

“Nah, I did somethin’ different.”

Ichigo jumped at the fox’s voice. Hoping against hope, he looked at the window in the _very_ remote possibility that Gin had actually decided on the sane and rational course of action. Of course, since that would have been the _sane and rational_ course of action, he was not there.

“Gin? Where are you?”

“Right here.”

As the reluctant host to the team of shinigami turned around, his jaw dropped below his knees. The closet door had opened, revealing the smiling captain sitting there with his legs now dangling out casually. Like the others, he was still in his gigai and school uniform, his shirt untucked and the top button undone.

The substitute shinigami sputtered for a few seconds, before finally deciding on a lucid question.

“How did you get in there?”

He at least took pleasure in the fact that the rest of the shinigami seemed to be as confused as he was at how Gin got into the closet.

“Don’t be nosy, Ichigo,” Gin chided. “Didn’t ya want to know ‘bout Arrancar?”

Ichigo stuttered for a few more moments before coming to the realization that he was better off _not_ knowing.

“Fine. What are they?”

Renji and Rukia volunteered to explain (the latter being much less helpful in Ichigo’s opinion). After learning about the Arrancar, he asked about why these particular shinigami were chosen to come to the living world.

“Rukia was picked because she knew you the best,” Renji started explaining.

“Not true!” Rukia protested indignantly, “I was selected because of my abilities!”

Her interjection was ignored.

“I’m the closest to Rukia out of the available fighters, so I was chosen,” Renji continued.

Ichigo could understand that. The lieutenant was a good fighter, and it was more practical to have shinigami assigned here who were already familiar with some of the people they needed to work with.

“And then I was told to pick out some fighters that I could trust who were below captain class. So I asked Ikkaku.”

Again, Ichigo could follow the logic there. He knew from personal experience that the Third Seat was a good guy to have on your side in a fight.

“And then Yumichika-san insisted on going.”

The substitute shinigami suddenly had a feeling that logic was about to have a decreasing factor in choosing the fighters from here on.

“When Rangiku-san heard the commotion he was making, she said that she wanted to come since it seemed interesting.”

Yes, it seemed that logic and reasoning only had a vote in three of the fighters, and left the rest to absurdity and frivolity.

“Rangiku-san wouldn’t hear of being left behind, and so Ichimaru-taichō came along as the leader.”

Beat.

“Or something like that.”

“What is this, a picnic?” Ichigo asked in exasperation.

“Okay, now fer part two of yer lesson, Ichigo,” Gin interjected.

The silver haired captain went on to explain the three classes of Menos: Gillian, Adjuchas, and Vasto Lorde. After he finished the lecture, Ichigo had one last thing he wanted to ask.

“So when are you going back?”

“We’re not,” Renji answered. “Until this battle with the Arrancar is over, we’ll be staying in the world of the living.”

“Well, where will you guys be sleeping then?”

Six people looked at him expectantly.

“And don’t even think about staying here, there’s too many of you, and my family would definitely notice,” Ichigo preemptively denied.

“That’s okay, we’ll ask Orihime-chan if we can stay at her place,” Rangiku said pleasantly. “Coming, Gin?”

“Right behind ya, Rangiku,” he said as he followed his wife out the window.

After Ikkaku and Yumichika followed suit, Ichigo turned towards the other two team members.

“I’ll be staying at Urahara’s,” Renji assured the substitute, and exited the room via the window.

“So, where are you staying?” Ichigo asked Rukia. Last time she lived in town, she had stayed in his room, so he didn’t know who she was going to ask for a place to live.

Rukia just smirked at him.

“No!” Ichigo denied.

Her smirk stayed.

“I said ‘no!’”

Smirk.

“Rukia!”

This was his room and his house, so why was Rukia the one in charge?

* * *

Gin sat on the roof of Orihime’s place, looking up into the sky.

After easily obtaining the “okay” to stay, Gin had gotten a quick bite to eat before quietly vacating the room. He could see that there was something on the human girl’s mind, and he figured she wanted to let it out to somebody. He knew that his wife was _far_ better at comforting people than he was; Rangiku had certainly tried to teach him the finer points of compassion and empathy, but even after a hundred years, such skills were still elusive to him. So, he decided to let the girls have a private talk. 

That was okay with him. It was a beautiful evening, and the view of the night sky in the world of the living was a treat he was not able to indulge in often. Gin let his eyes open more fully to allow him a better view of the stars.

They were arranged differently here than they were in Soul Society. He could tell because he and Rangiku had spent nights every now and then just lying together and looking up into the wonder of the night sky. Gin wondered why the stars looked off here, and whether or not the reason for that difference lay solely in the fact that this was the living world, or if there were other factors involved.

Gin had once visited the Twelfth to ask if they had done any research in astronomy.

* * *

_“Astronomy?” Mayuri looked up from his computer with nine parts annoyance and one part curiosity at the trespasser. There was a list of individuals he had long given up trying to keep out of his laboratory. Top of that list were Kusajishi Yachiru and Ichimaru Gin, and the latter was the one that was now present. While the fox was intruding on precious time for experimentation, at least it was made up by the fact that he was seeking scientific knowledge._

_“Astronomy,” his erstwhile ally confirmed. “Ya know, study o’ the stars an’ all that.”_

_“We haven’t much interest in such a branch of research,” the scientist answered. “Astronomy is primarily calculation of planetary trajectories and aiding timekeeping. Prediction for eclipses, for example. Since we have computers, we have little need to further explore astronomy.”_

_“Ain’t ya even curious?” Gin asked._

_“Of course,” Mayuri replied. “But I have other, far more interesting projects on my mind right now. Perhaps some other day, I’ll take another look. Now, is there anything else you wish to know, or are you here just to annoy me?”_

* * *

His thoughts were interrupted by Rangiku coming up to the roof in her night clothes.

“Orihime-chan and I are about to have dinner,” she said. “Do you want to join us?”

“Nah, I already snacked,” he answered. He wondered idly how the human girl was going to react to his wife’s… odd tastes. “How’d the girl talk go?”

“I don’t confide and tell, Gin, you know that,” she scolded him with good humor.

“I didn’t ask what ya talked ‘bout, I asked how it went,” he riposted.

She smirked at his counter. “She’s feeling better now.”

“Good. Ya better get back down; ya don’t wanna keep our hostess waitin’.”

“Enjoy the view,” she said, referring to his watching of the night sky.

“I will,” he promised.

Rangiku pecked him on the cheek and went back down into Orihime’s apartment.

Gin sighed as he settled back down on the roof. While he could not hear the specifics, he could definitely tell that both the girls were enjoying their meal. That either meant that Rangiku had come across normal food that she liked, or Orihime’s tastes were just as abnormal as his wife’s.

Very early on, Gin and Rangiku made a simple deal about her cooking: he would try every single one of her creations once, and he would be honest about the taste. It was actually a better arrangement than either had expected; there was a one in three chance that Gin would find her meals weird-good, weird-neutral, or weird-bad. It was only every now and then that she made something he truly couldn’t force past his gag reflex.

Sometime later, as he pondered the culinary habits of his spouse, he felt it; the appearance of a hostile incursion. The reiatsu had the familiar vile aura of a Hollow, but was somehow tempered by the presence of something akin to a shinigami. These had to be Arrancar.

Gin popped the small green pill in his mouth and told the gikongan to find a safe spot to hide. Rangiku was up only a second later, in her natural spiritual form and with her zanpakutō drawn.

“Orihime-chan safe?” he asked.

“Yes, I had her watch over my gigai so that she wouldn’t try to join the fight.”

“Get ready, Rangiku; they’re here.”

A moment after he had spoken, two figures appeared in front of them in the air in a manner similar yet different to shunpo.

“Nice to meet you,” greeted the taller, slimmer figure on the left, and then vanished.

Gin knew there was only one place an attacking enemy would go after he had disappeared from in front of you.

He quickly drew Shinsō and pivoted on his feet to block the strike from behind.

“Gin!”

Rangiku was forced to jump away as the other enemy attacked her.

A moment of silence followed as the combatants measured their opponents.

“I am Arrancar Eleven, Shawlong,” Gin’s opponent finally said.

“Ichimaru Gin,” he replied cordially. “Captain of the Third Division. Nice to meet ya, too.”

Introductions finished, Gin pushed against his enemy, and they separated. He made sure to catch up to the Hollow, and they faced each other once more on the roof of a nearby building.

“Captain of the Third Division,” Shawlong said, and then a small, satisfied smile lit his features. “My, my, how wonderful. It looks like I hit the jackpot.”

Gin elected not to reply, and simply changed the setting on his smile from “Standard” to “Intimidating.” He was quite pleased when Shawlong’s smug smile straightened into a cautious frown.

With no further warning, the vulpine captain leapt forward and struck with Shinsō.

* * *

“Growl, Haineko,” Rangiku called out in between swings of the enemy’s fists, and the ash storm rose to her command. It was quite evident that with her reiatsu limiter activated, the rotund enemy assaulting her was clearly her match in strength and speed.

With her blade now a cloud of ash, the lieutenant could now focus on dodging each punch sent at her, and did not have to worry about trying to find an opening; Haineko would drift through any gap in the enemy’s defense. Rangiku swung her hilt, and the Ash Cat pounced.

Sparks flew off the Arrancar’s hide as the millions of particles of Rangiku’s zanpakutō scratched at his skin, but there was no significant damage.

“My hierro is too strong for you to break through,” the giant informed her arrogantly.

“Even the toughest armor has its weak spot,” Rangiku rejoined. “And my zanpakutō is good at finding them.”

On that note, she swung her hilt again, and the cloud swirled across her enemy’s body and dove towards his throat. The thinner skin at the neck was more vulnerable, and Haineko succeeded in drawing blood with her claws.

The Arrancar’s eyes widened at the unexpected piercing of his iron flesh, and disappeared from the clutches of the incorporeal zanpakutō.

Just like her husband, Rangiku knew what would happen next. So in response, she swung the hilt of her sword as she pivoted one hundred eighty degrees.

As expected, the corpulent man was behind her with his fist raised above his head and ready to bring it down on her head. Before the blow landed, Haineko blocked the fist as she blew in between her wielder and the Arrancar.

“That was pretty fast,” Rangiku admitted to her opponent as she held back his fist. “It’s a lot like our shunpo; what do you call yours?”

“Sonido,” the Arrancar replied haughtily.

* * *

A minute into the fight, Shawlong took a moment to pause and briefly looked off into the distance.

“One of yer guys got killed, didn’t they?” Gin asked, also feeling the sudden drop of reiatsu. And if he was not mistaken, it was Rukia who had dealt that blow. He made a mental note to give the girl a congratulatory pat on the head next time he saw her.

“One of our weaker brethren,” Shawlong replied calmly. “Do not make the mistake of believing that Di-Roy’s death makes your victory certain.”

“It sure don’t help yer side,” Gin replied, and attacked again.

The two duelists clashed three times, and the captain pulled away first. Shawlong managed to get a scratch in, and a small amount of blood began to trickle from the wound on the left side of his face just below the eye.

“Not bad,” Gin admitted as he gingerly touched the nick on his cheek. “Ya got me that time.”

“It will not be the last injury I will inflict on you,” Shawlong promised.

“Don’t make promises yer not sure ya can keep,” the fox taunted back.

He subtly checked Rangiku’s condition. She had already released her sword, and was still having trouble fighting her opponent. Still, she was holding her own for now, and since Gin could not do anything to help her at the moment, the status quo would have to remain.

However, that did not mean that he would not do something to end the fight quicker.

“Shoot to kill, Shinsō!”

Shawlong’s eye widened in surprise at the sudden release of Shikai, and just managed to block it before Gin scored a hit.

Quickly recovering, the Arrancar disappeared and reappeared behind Ichimaru with his blade ready to fall.

Not exactly a fast learner, this one.

Gin had easily predicted the move and leveled Shinsō back beneath his armpit. The fang of his sword pierced through his haori and scored a hit on the astonished Hollow. It was not a very deep one, just a cut in the oblique muscle, but it was a hit, and forced Shawlong to retreat by leaping away. Gin retracted his blade and faced him, and from his relatively safer position, the Arrancar considered his foe.

“I’m surprised you managed to hit me,” he said. “Even though you are only at Shikai, you managed to catch me by surprise. But that is the extent of your power in this state, is it not? Your sword relies more on keeping your opponent at a distance rather than overpowering them with raw strength. You hope to kill me by staying away and not allowing me to close in for a counterattack.”

“Ya figured it out,” Gin admitted. While his enemy’s deductions were not incorrect, they were far from the whole, accurate story. But the wary warrior saw no reason to change the Arrancar’s mind, so he kept mum about his own abilities. Instead, he asked, “So whatcha gonna do now?”

“How prepared are you for the eventuality that your opponent would be fast enough to close that gap?” was all Shawlong inquired before he raised his blade vertically and declared, “Slice, Tijereta!”

A smile painted the Arrancar’s lips as an explosion of reiatsu rushed past Gin. When the smoke cleared, Shawlong appeared in his Resurreccion form. He studied his skeletal hands for a moment before attacking.

Gin saw it coming, but just barely. He only managed to step back enough to let the tip of Shawlong’s claw run across his torso. While the wound was shallow, the sheer length did mean that blood was pouring out of his body fast. On instinct, Gin focused his reiatsu into the wound to stop the bleeding. He did not do anything more, because he still needed enough spiritual power to kill his opponent.

“Huh,” the captain remarked looking down at his injury. “Ya got me that time.”

“I told you that I would inflict another wound on you,” Shawlong commented lightly. “However, I’m surprised you managed to step back in time to prevent that cut from completely bisecting you. Even so, if this is your maximum speed, you will not stand a chance. Why don’t you try your Bankai? You will need it if you wish to have any chance at beating me.”

Truth be told, Gin had been contemplating that course of action, but he did not like the idea of revealing his full power to someone who was probably just a henchman. True, with the restriction on, the release of Bankai would be about the equivalent of releasing Shikai, but it was still the principle of the matter. Besides, this provided Gin with a chance to test his wits.

“What, jus’ ‘cause ya grew yer nails out?” Gin shrugged. “I don’t need no Bankai fer that, jus’ nail clippers.”

The Arrancar narrowed his eyes in annoyance, and leapt forward to attack again.

This time, the fox was prepared, and blocked the long, bony fingers which threatened to shred him to bits.

“I’m serious, ya should be more careful,” Gin smirked. “Next time ya feel the need to scratch yer nuts, ya mind end up a eunuch.”

Shawlong appeared only mildly annoyed at his opponent’s taunts.

“You will reap the fruits of your arrogance soon enough,” the Arrancar calmly swore.

* * *

Rangiku was reaching the edge of her limit; while the assault on her enemy’s eye and throat served well to force him to relocate, his sonido allowed him to escape Haineko’s claws before too much damage could be inflicted.

_“Ichimaru Rangiku-sama! You are hereby authorized to use full force!”_

The news from the radio made the woman grin triumphantly.

“Gin! Renji!” she called out to her allies, “We’ve got permission to break the restriction!”

* * *

The division’s leader let his smile become a predatory grin as he heard Rangiku’s announcement.

“Better late than never I guess,” he said rhetorically, savoring the feel of the invisible collar lifting.

“What’s this?” Shawlong asked in return, a small amount of concern beginning to show on his face for the first time, but it was quickly suppressed.

“Limit, release,” was Gin’s only response, and he could feel the other two combatants also letting their full power out. Reiatsu from three shinigami flared blue, and sent beams of light into the sky.

“Did you say, ‘limit, release’?” the would-be raider asked, now not bothering to conceal his surprise.

The smoke cleared, and Gin appeared before the Arrancar refreshed with his wounds partly closed.

“Yeah, sorry, Shawlong, but yer gonna die now,” the captain said to his opponent playfully. “Ya see, whenever someone lieutenant or higher goes to the livin’ world, their power is sealed to ‘bout one fifth. In certain situations, we can get permission to remove the seals… situations like these, fer example.”

Shawlong’s attention was diverted when he saw one of his fellow Fraccion destroyed by Renji.

Upon the realization that he was now outclassed, the insectoid Arrancar called to his remaining comrade for a retreat, just in time to see Rangiku use Haineko simply _shred_ the large Arrancar into dust.

Seeing that he was the only one left, Shawlong ran.

“Uh, uh, uh, uh,” Gin scolded as he observed his opponent's flight, before letting Shinsō strike with her full strength. The serpentine blade hissed in joy as she pierced the Arrancar’s chest.

Shawlong screamed in pain, but was quickly silenced as the blade moved upward and neatly cut his skull in half.

The image of shock and fear was split in two before Shawlong’s body dissipated.

Gin let out a sigh, and resealed his Shikai.

“Gin!”

The addressed captain looked down to see his wife standing next to Orihime and her gikongai on the rooftop.

“Are you all right?” she called.

“I’m good,” he answered as he descended to their position. “Though if ya don’t mind, Orihime-chan, I wouldn’t object to ya healing these scratches.”

“No problem,” the human girl acquiesced, and mentally called out two of her Shun Shun Rikka.

“You only sustained two injuries, Ichimaru-taichō?” the gikongan asked as the subtle hum of Orihime’s powers did their work, its English accent sounding weird from the voice box of his gigai.

When Gin went to get a gikongan for his mission to the living world, he wanted one that had a Kansai accent like his. They didn’t have any, so he decided to pick the one with a fox’s head on it. The result was a gikongan with a British accent that sounded almost as creepy as the man he impersonated. Gin took a liking to it immediately.

“Yep,” the captain answered as he felt his battle’s injuries disappear, and the Soten Kisshun returned to their owner’s hair. As soon as he was released from her healing sphere, Rangiku rushed forward and tightly wrapped her arms around his torso. In reply, Gin put an arm around her and whispered to her, “I’m okay, Rangiku.”

“I was worried about you,” she said softly.

“Oh, c’mon, that guy was barely worth mentionin’,” he assured her, and then turned his attention to Orihime, who was quietly trying not to look at the scene before her. He placed his free hand on her head, and said, “Thanks, Orihime-chan, I owe ya one.”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” the girl rushed to reply. “It wasn’t a problem!”

“You know, we should check on the others,” Rangiku reluctantly spoke up. “They might need Orihime-chan’s healing abilities.”

“Aw, but I wanna stay here an’ snuggle,” Gin pouted.

“Yes, it’s very comfortable, but we need to make sure no one else is dead or dying.”

“All right, fine,” the captain relented as he let go of his wife.

“Stay in the apartment until we come back,” Rangiku instructed the gikongan.

They both nodded and left.

Gin picked up Orihime in his arms with a squeak of protest from the girl before flash-stepping towards the nearest reiatsu source, Rangiku following right behind him.

A few minutes later, they found a bruised Ichigo and an unconscious Rukia on the roof of a building. Gin quickly set down both himself and the flustered human girl and announced their presence with, “Someone need a healer?”

“Inoue! Gin! Rangiku-san!”

Orihime’s sight first went to the large number of Ichigo’s bruises, but then she saw Rukia lying unconscious with a stab wound to her abdomen and her gikongan weeping over her.

She immediately ran to the petite shinigami and with a call to her Shun Shun Rikka began her work.

“So, how’d yer fight go?” Gin asked Ichigo.

The substitute did not answer, instead looking off to the side unhappily.

“Eh, well, ya win some, ya lose some,” the captain shrugged.

“You fought an Espada, didn’t you?” Rangiku asked.

Ichigo looked at her in surprise, and Gin also sent an inquiring smile to her.

“The guy I fought was bragging about it,” she explained. “The Espada are Aizen’s top ten Arrancar, some of his strongest fighters.”

“Yeah, my guy said the same thing,” the captain confirmed. “Grimmjow was his name, right?”

“Yeah,” the human teen nodded.

“Is Rukia-san going to be okay?” Rangiku asked.

“I think so,” Orihime replied. “I’ll take care of your wounds next, Kurosaki-kun.”

“’Kay,” he said dully.

“Now, now,” the captain chided. “If ya go back to bein’ all depressed, I’ll have to tell Rukia-chan on ya. An’ when I tell her, she’s gonna kick yer behind to Hueco Mundo an’ back.”

“By the way, Gin,” Ichigo said, a small bit of life returning to his voice. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something that’s been on my mind: why is Rukia scared of you?”

“A lotta people are scared o’ me,” he shrugged.

“Rangiku-san isn’t,” Ichigo pointed out.

“She’s known me since we were kids.”

“And I’m not.”

“Yeah, but yer weird like that, so ya don’t count.”

Ichigo gave him a look that very plainly said, “ _I’m_ weird?” Before the orange-haired youth could continue his interrogation, he heard a groan under the subtle hum of Orihime’s Soten Kisshun.

“Rukia!”

“Ichigo…”

“Rukia-sama!”

Seeing her work was done, Orihime removed her Shun Shun Rikka from Rukia’s body and returned them to her hair clips.

Rukia sat up and gently placed a hand to where the hole once was.

“Thank you, Orihime,” Rukia said. “Your healing powers have really improved.”

“Oh, that’s not true!” the other girl stammered modestly.

“Welcome back to the world of the livin’, Rukia-chan,” Gin said.

Rukia froze.

“Thank you, Ichimaru-taichō,” she replied warily.

“See what I mean?” Ichigo said. “She’s scared of you.”

“I am not!” Rukia protested vehemently.

“All he had to do was say ‘hi’ and you were like a deer in headlights,” Ichigo retorted.

“I was just surprised that the captain had taken the time to check on my condition!”

“You’re a member of the team he’s leading! Of course he should check to make sure you’re all right! I bet even Chappy here saw how scared you are of him!”

“Rukia-sama’s not afwaid of anyone!”

“Shut up, who asked you?”

“You just did.”

“Judging by that smirk on your face, I’m betting you’re definitely feeling better.”

“I am, thank you for asking,” she replied in that all-too-sweet voice of hers.

“Just answer the stupid question.”

“I am _not_ afraid of Ichimaru-taichō!”

As the two bickered on, Gin leaned over to Orihime and asked in a quiet but impish voice, “Ya ain’t scared o’ me, are ya, Orihime-chan?”

“Uh, actually, I’m not.”

Gin paused, his eyebrows raised in surprise by the honesty of the answer.

“Yeah, you do look kind of creepy,” she explained nervously. “But you helped try to save Kuchiki-san while in Soul Society, and you’re here helping us now, and Rangiku-san married you, so that must mean that you’re not as bad as you look.”

The silver-haired captain considered the human girl for a moment.

“Ya know what, Orihime-chan?” he finally said, his smile returning in full force. “Ya can call me ‘Gin’.”

“What?” she started suddenly. “But I couldn’t!”

“Just like Rukia-chan,” Gin sighed with feigned despondency. “So stuck on formality. Well, if ya change yer mind, jus’ know that I don’t mind what ya call me.”

“Okay… Gin-san,” Orihime allowed.

“That’s a bit better,” he said.

“Gin, we should check on Ikkaku and Yumichika, see if they need any help,” Rangiku said.

“All right, we’ll let those two have their fun,” Gin replied. “C’mon, Orihime-chan.”

“But, Kurosaki-kun is still hurt…” Orihime protested.

“He’ll be fine,” the fox assured her. “Besides, he’s a bit busy at the moment. Let the lovers have their lil’ quarrel.”

As he picked up Orihime to check on the other shinigami, Gin did not understand why his wife was shooting him a glare for that last comment. After all, surely she knew by now that there were other, far worse remarks he could have made. Who said he didn’t know restraint?

* * *

Orihime nervously knocked on the apartment door. Gin and Rangiku were still in their shinigami forms on either side of her, and despite them stating that they could feel their comrades inside, the human girl was skeptical. How could shinigami ask to stay in a strange apartment? This wasn’t Sado’s place, she knew that, nor was it Ishida’s home.

“Yes, who is- Inoue-san!”

“Asano-kun?” Orihime blinked in surprise at the familiar face of Asano Keigo.

“What are you doing here?” the other student asked excitedly.

“Uh, would you perhaps happen to have a shaved man and his beautiful friend in your room?” Orihime asked hesitantly.

“FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT RIGHT!”

“Ikkaku-san!” Orihime gasped, and rushed past the brown-haired student to where she had heard his voice.

“Hello, Orihime-chan,” Yumichika greeted her as she dashed into the room.

“Hey,” Ikkaku grunted with less enthusiasm. Understandable, considering the layer of bruises and burns which seemed to cover his skin.

“And who are _you_?” an unfamiliar brunette narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the new girl.

“Uh, Nee-san, this Inoue Orihime, a friend from school,” Keigo nervously interjected. “Inoue-san, this is my sister Mizuho.”

“Pleased to meet you!” Orihime chirped and bowed.

“What is your relationship with Ikkaku?” Mizuho demanded in a low voice.

“Uh, he’s a friend,” the other girl answered nervously.

Keigo’s glaring sister did not seem convinced.

“Don’t worry,” Yumichika put in smoothly. “Orihime-chan’s heart does not go out to anyone in this room.”

“Unfortunately,” Keigo muttered despondently under his breath.

“Great!” Mizuho suddenly grinned and hugged Orihime, who yelped at the sudden change of mood and contact. “Then make yourself at home!”

“Uh, t-thank you!” Orihime stuttered.

“Uh, Orihime-chan, who _are_ these two?” Keigo asked curiously.

“Oh, I met Ikkaku-san and Yumichika-san over the summer,” she explained.

“Actually, I was talking about them,” the boy gestured to the two Ichimarus who had thus far observed the drama in silence.

“Oh, sorry, this is Ichimaru Gin and Rangiku!” Orihime introduced, and then blinked. “You can see them?”

“See who?” Mizuho asked.

“Those two over there,” Keigo pointed at Gin and Rangiku, still in their shinigami forms.

“You idiot, there isn’t anyone standing there,” his sister scolded.

“Well, this is awkward,” Gin commented. “Orihime-chan, jus’ heal their injuries an’ leave.”

“Don’t bother, not with the ordinary humans here,” Yumichika said to the kind-hearted girl quietly.

“Ikkaku-san is hurt!” Orihime protested.

“We’ll come find you tomorrow, and you can heal me then,” Ikkaku assured her. “I can hold out that long.”

“Are you sure?” she asked in concern.

Both warriors nodded.

“Okay,” Orihime agreed with some reservation, and then turned to the two Asanos still bickering and said, “Thank you for taking care of them!”

“No problem!” Mizuho broke off with her arguing to give an energetic grin at the orange-haired girl.

* * *

Rangiku found Gin in a lonelier part of a park, sitting comfortably under a tree. She walked up quietly behind him, careful not to make any sound as she approached him.

“Guess who!” she squealed as she pounced and placed her hands over his eyes.

“Guess who!”

She shrieked when someone else suddenly came up behind her and mimicked her action. Rangiku jumped away from the new hands and looked to see what had happened: Gin had left his gigai leaning against the tree, and had been hiding up in the branches for her to show up. At the moment she had pounced on him, he had struck. She was just about to tell him off for tricking her when he cut off any retort by pressing his lips against hers.

The strawberry-blonde only had a moment to curse her husband’s kissing skills before she sank into bliss.

One wonderful make-out session later, Gin pulled away and whispered, “Gotcha.”

“Shut up,” was the only retort she could summon up in her post-kiss haze.

“So, whatcha doin’ out here?”

What was she doing? Yes, there had been a reason she had been looking for him, but she couldn’t quite remember…

“I think…,” Rangiku slowly replied, and then her cognitive abilities gradually returned to her. “Have you filed the report about last night yet?”

“Finished it just as I felt ya comin’,” Gin answered her. “Which reminds me…”

His relatively serious tone sobered her up quick, and she paid attention.

“We knew that we would need to be trainin’ to get stronger fer the war with Aizen,” he said. “Well, last night, I would’ve needed to use Bankai to kill a Gillian-class Arrancar; if we hadn’t gotten word that we could fight without our limiters on, that is.”

Rangiku nodded in comprehension, but then stiffened as she noticed the look on her husband’s face. No one else would have picked up on it, but she knew Gin well enough to know all his tells. Right now, he was about to say something she was _not_ going to like.

“If those were jus’ the foot soldiers,” Gin continued, “then the stakes have gone up.”

“What are you saying, Gin?” Rangiku asked nervously.

He turned to face her, a determined and very excited smile on his face.

“It means, Rangiku- _chan_ ,” he replied, and she paled; she was one of the few girls Gin did _not_ refer to with the “-chan” honorific. There had only been one time in their lives when he had called her “Rangiku-chan,” and those had _not_ been happy times (arguably necessary, but still hard). “Yer goin’ back to school.”

Rangiku whimpered.

“An’ we’re startin’ right now,” Gin informed her generously as he casually drew Shinsō from her scabbard.

Well, what else could a woman do in this situation?

Just as Shinsō was laid bare, Rangiku socked him in the face, pulled her zanpakutō out of her sheath, and declared “Growl, Haineko!” All this was in the space of one second.

Before the ash cloud could reach him, Gin had already disappeared in a buzz of shunpo.

Rangiku knew that Gin would not necessarily attack from the rear. He could appear to her right or to her left, or even pop up right back in front of her. So she called Haineko back and surrounded herself with the cloud.

And she froze when she felt the point of a blade touching the top of her head.

“Yer dead,” Gin’s voice informed her from his position overhead. “Good work on that sucker punch, but ya should’ve checked above ya, not jus’ to yer sides.”

Rangiku expelled a _very_ crude word from her mouth.

“We’ll do that later,” he promised cheekily. “If ya still got the energy after we’re done trainin’, that is.”

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Yes, Gin did have a much easier time with Shawlong than Hitsugaya did in canon. I know I’m going to tick off Hitsugaya fans by saying this, but Gin is the better fighter of the two. Gin has been shown to fight smarter and harder than Hitsugaya, and in this timeline, Gin was taught how to fight by Kyōraku. However, I will say that AGNH-Gin does not have as much raw power as canon Gin does, because the latter was spending his entire life training himself to be strong enough to be able to kill Aizen. Since the Gin I’ve been writing here did not have that drive, he will not have the same power level. With that said, I still think that his levels of sneakiness will always remain the same, no matter the timeline.

Rangiku was also able to hold out better than in canon because she has higher reiatsu levels. As I mentioned the previous chapter, the effects of having a piece of her soul stolen for the Hogyoku have never been clarified, but it’s been generally assumed that it had a long-term effect on Rangiku’s overall spiritual power.

The voice of Gin’s gikongan is based on his voice in the English dub of the anime. While I prefer his Japanese voice better (and I think a southern accent is a better fit), I do think the English voice actor did a good job of conveying Gin’s creepiness.

Interesting bit of trivia: Phil Collins was offered the role of being the voice actor for Gin in the English dub of the anime. Collins turned them down, but later regretted the decision.

My thanks to the following reviewers: **TykkiMikk** , **Juliedoo** , **The Lord of War** , **TakaSasuke** , **AKissAndAGunshot** , **Nnix Ame** , **skymaster23** , and anonymous guests.

* * *

**Omake: Arrancar Encyclopedia**

A spotlight shone down on Hitsugaya Tōshirō, who was standing there with a flat expression on his face and his arms crossed over his chest.

“Today we’ll be talking about alternate timelines,” he began with a monotone and the enthusiasm of an acting opossum.

“Cut!”

Hitsugaya glared at Gin, who appeared in his normal shinigami outfit, but with a director’s megaphone in hand.

“C’mon, Shiro-chan, put more life into this!”

“First of all, you will refer to me as Hitsugaya-san,” the short prodigy started. “Second, I didn’t even want to perform them. Why do you even believe these to be necessary?”

“Since Rangiku won’t let me do ‘em, someone else has to make sure the readers know all the jargon an’ terms that come up.”

“But you already went over them in the other timeline; there’s no point in going over these twice.”

“I don’t know if ya noticed, but some o’ those fans are kinda dumb. Can’t really trust ‘em to remember all the stuff that comes up.”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** Probably the biggest weakness of this story were the times I treaded too close to canon, and this chapter is the biggest offender. In hindsight, I could have left off this entire chapter from the story and the plot wouldn’t have suffered much from it, with a couple of the more interesting bits (i.e., Gin sneaking into Ichigo’s closet, Ichigo commenting on Rukia’s fear of Gin, Rukia asserting her place in Ichigo’s house) I could have found a place elsewhere. I’m just glad I had enough sense even back then to just breeze over the exposition, instead of repeating it word for word.

I could have also made the fact that since Gin snuck in through the closet, it would make Rukia far more accepting of how she wouldn’t be staying in there this time.

Heck, I missed an opportunity to have Kira and Hinamori are a part of Gin’s team instead of Ikkaku and Yumichika. It would have been a great follow-up on the previous chapter where Gin starts to take them under his wing. I could have written a battle where it was them facing off against Edorad instead of Ikkaku going it alone, which in turn would mean he never broke his Bankai. And I could explore how Kira and Hinamori found their own place to crash; probably wouldn’t be with Keigo, as the only reason that flew was because of Mizuho’s interest in bald men… a trait that fortunately, neither Kira nor Hinamori possess. Maybe Chad, as a way to include him more in the plot?

Dang, all these great ideas I wish I had when I was writing this in the first place.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story!


	10. Godslayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gin spends some time with Shinsō, and afterwards provides the main reason why this story has the “Graphic Depictions of Violence” warning.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 11/12/2013**

* * *

Warning: The fight scene between Gin and Luppi will get a little grisly. This is rated “T” after all.

* * *

“Welcome, Kuchiki-san!” Urahara greeted in his usual chipper manner while waving his fan. “What can I do for you?”

“I need another gikon dispenser,” the petite noble explained. “My usual, please. You _do_ have one in stock this time, right?”

“Of course! I made sure to have at least one Chappy reserved especially for you! Please wait a moment while I go fetch it!”

She nodded in acknowledgement, and the shopkeeper left to pick out the appropriate merchandise from storage. Rukia had only waited a few seconds before a familiar voice sang, “How are ya, Rukia-chan?”

She quickly turned around to find Ichimaru looming over her. It was times like these that she hated being so short.

“Ichimaru-taichō,” she acknowledged respectfully. “What are you doing here?”

“Just takin’ a walk ‘round,” he answered. “Thought I’d come by an’ chat with Urahara-san, an’ I found ya here.”

“I’m simply purchasing some gikon,” Rukia said using the standard cautious-polite tone she was accustomed to having whenever she conversed with Ichimaru.

“Oh, an’ outta curiosity,” he drawled. “Ya wouldn’t happen to know where Ichigo is, do ya?”

“I don’t,” she answered. “He hasn’t returned back home for a few days now.”

There was something Rukia wanted to ask Ichimaru in return, but she was not sure if she could gather the nerve to do it.

“Ichimaru-taichō,” she continued, finally facing up to it. “May I ask you a question?”

“Ya can ask me anythin’ ya want,” the fox said easily.

“Why did you choose to save me in Soul Society?” she asked before she lost her courage.

Ichimaru cocked his head, as if confused by her question. “Watcha mean by that?”

Rukia’s patience was quickly wearing thin, but she restrained herself. “You’ve never shown any liking towards me, and suddenly you volunteer to risk your life to save mine. Why?”

“Sorry, thought it was obvious,” Ichimaru said. “Don’tcha remember me sayin’ ya were my second favorite woman in Soul Society?”

“But _why?_ ” Rukia demanded. Now that she had finally asked the question, her momentum was carrying her forward, and she was not going to stop until she got an answer.

“’Cause I like ya,” Ichimaru stated in a matter-of-fact manner.

“You have a funny way of showing it!” Rukia replied with more heat than she probably should have. “Ever since I met you, you’ve taken it upon yourself to harass, terrify, and generally drive me insane!”

It was hard to lock eyes with someone who kept them nigh-closed all the time, but she did her best as she glared up at Ichimaru upon finishing her brief rant, waiting for his reaction. He did not look even remotely offended by her outburst. Just the opposite in fact; his smile had widened to show more teeth. Rukia was no expert in reading his smiles, but she could have sworn that he looked satisfied by her insolence.

She kept up her defiant stare, daring the man to make the first move. She was not disappointed, but in an unexpected way.

Ichimaru brought his hand up, and Rukia instinctively stiffened. But the only thing he did was gently place his bony, thin fingers on top of her head. The action made her uncomfortable, but she forced herself to relax.

“Yer growin’ up fast,” Ichimaru told her, and then took on an infuriatingly patronizing tone, “but there’s some things ya ain’t ready to hear yet.”

Rukia growled in frustration, using every bit of self-control she had to prevent herself from strangling him.

“Ah, Ichimaru-taichō!” Urahara sang as he re-entered the room, Rukia’s gikon dispenser in hand. “I didn’t hear you come in. How are you doing?”

Rukia was almost certain that the “humble” shopkeeper had been eavesdropping on their conversation. She did not say anything on it, though, because he had come just in time to defuse a situation that potentially could have ended badly for her.

“Doin’ well,” Ichimaru answered conversationally, and removed his hand from the top of her head, much to Rukia’s relief. “How’s business?”

“Same old, same old,” Urahara replied. “The usual lovely ladies and crazy gentlemen are my best customers.”

Rukia rolled her eyes at the attempted flattery, and held out her hand to accept the merchandise. Urahara offered the soul candy dispenser to her, and she gave a brief bow and a word of parting to Ichimaru before she walked quickly out the door.

“Why are you here, Ichimaru-taichō?” Urahara asked after Rukia had exited the building.

The captain’s tone was suspiciously casual as he said, “Mind tellin’ me what happened that night a hundred years ago?”

The shopkeeper went still as a rare serious expression crossed over his face. They both knew Ichimaru did not need to specify the exact date. From beneath the shadow of his hat, Urahara looked back at the squinty-eyed man and asked, “Who is making this inquiry?”

“Me,” his smirking customer answered. “Though Yama-jii is very interested in hearin’ yer side o’ the story, now that certain facts have come to light.”

“Is he now?”

Ichimaru nodded. “He wants ya to re-confirm the story ya told a hundred years ago, that it was Aizen who framed ya fer the Hollowfication of those captains an’ lieutenants.”

“He did.” Urahara's tone was flat, indicating he was neither impressed nor mollified by this roundabout admission of guilt on Soul Society's part.

“That’s all he wants to know fer now. But what _I_ wanna know is this: how’s Lisa gettin’ along these days?”

Urahara blinked in mild surprise. Of all the questions he had expected, that had been rather low on the list.

“She’s fine,” he answered cautiously. “She’s healthy and sane, and doing well.”

“Good,” Ichimaru answered. “I don’t suppose there’s a chance of meetin’ up with her, fer ol’ time’s sake.”

“That is not up to me,” Urahara informed him.

“Then pass along the message,” the captain countered.

The shaggy scientist sighed, and nodded. “Very well. I’ll tell her that, the next time I run into her.”

Ichimaru nodded once in thanks before taking his leave without another word.

* * *

“This looks like a good place,” Gin decided as he led his wife, Ikkaku, and Yumichika to a secluded spot in a park. “’Kay, everyone, out o’ yer gigais.”

“Why do we have to do Jinzen?” Rangiku whined.

“Especially when we know that _some_ of our zanpakutō spirits are going to be uncooperative?” Yumichika agreed.

“If ya want, we can have a sparrin’ match instead, the three o’ ya against me…”

His three teammates immediately sat cross-legged on the ground. While Ikkaku and Yumichika were as battle-hungry as the best of the Eleventh, Ichimaru’s training methods were creative and challenging, to be put politely. Put bluntly, it was the worst experience they had ever gone through, short of spending a day babysitting a sugar-high Yachiru. The past month under his tutelage had proven taxing even by their standards. The reason they did not take enjoyment out of fighting the fox was because he did not behave like a warrior should. He used sneak attacks, he kicked them while they were down, and worst of all (in the Eleventh men’s minds) he forced his opponents to work as a team. Ichimaru forced Rangiku, Ikkaku, and Yumichika to cooperate, and thus breaking their rule of always fighting one-on-one.

Inwardly chuckling at the obedience of his subordinates, Gin entered his inner realm, relishing in the familiar sight of the never-ending grassland.

For some reason he had never figured out other than “just because,” he always appeared in his mind without footwear, allowing him to feel the soft grass every time he came to visit Shinsō.

He looked up at the dark sky; it was always night in his inner world, and it was always cloudless. From his days in the Rukongai, Gin had preferred the night to the day. It allowed him to hide from nasty people, and gave him the opportunity to strike back without being seen. Even though he no longer needed to hide, some things stuck with him. His preference for the shadows was one of them, made evident by his inner world. Despite the darkness of the realm, he never had a problem seeing.

Gin waited where he first appeared, knowing that Shinsō was never in a hurry to greet him. He didn’t mind; they were both very patient people.

As he waited, he looked up into the blackened sky, and saw how the stars were arranged. Here in his inner realm they were never displayed the same way twice in a row. This time around, it looked like the stars were arranged so they mimicked the major constellations of the humans, but there were definite differences. For example, Orion wasn’t visible this time of year in the real world, but in Shinsō’s realm, it stood proudly above him.

The stellar setup was not the only difference between reality and his mind. Unlike the real moon, which followed a set pattern of phases, here the appearance of Earth’s natural satellite was completely random. Well, not _completely_ random; Gin had long ago figured out that there was a correlation between the phase of the moon and Shinsō. He had yet to fully decipher the code, but there were a couple of hints he had picked up on. For one, he knew that there was no correlation between the phases and Shinsō’s mood; she could be pleased, and the moon would be dark or bright. Rather, Gin suspected that it was a way of measuring secrecy. Whether it was how secretive his zanpakutō was feeling towards him, or how mysterious they both felt towards other people, he was not sure. The moon was seldom full, but it was also rarely completely dark. More often, it was in the occluded phases, possibly reflecting his old habit of hiding in the shadows. This time around, the moon was in its waning crescent phase.

“What do you think?” a feminine voice spoke softly from right behind him.

“Very pretty,” Gin replied approvingly as he turned to face his zanpakutō. Shinsō’s stealthy arrivals stopped startling him after he had learned her name. “Ya got here quick.”

If there could be one way to describe Shinsō’s physical appearance, it would be “beautiful as a cobra.” Her features were smooth and elegant, and unmarred by her complete lack of hair on her person. Her skin was a fair tone, and her face was narrow, with a subtle, scheming smile on her lips. While she kept her eyes semi-closed, the sanguine shade of her irises were still visible. She wore around her body a white cloak that had two openings for her skinny arms, which she kept loosely by her sides. From the waist down, she had the body of the snake; the reptilian half seemed to go on for about seven meters, and the scales were the color of polished steel. Here in the shadows of the evening, her scales were a dull gray.

This eccentric beauty did nothing to conceal her predatory pose. Shinsō was always ready to strike, always ready to take down her next prey. Gin learned early on to not show weakness to her whenever he visited; hunters always sought an opening, and this naga was no exception.

“I was in the mood,” she replied. “I know that you came here to discuss something quite important.”

“That’s right,” Gin confirmed. “I think it’s ‘bout time we had a chat ‘bout what our Bankai can do.”

“Is that so?” Shinsō replied.

“Kamishini no Yari’s base traits are pretty impressive,” he continued. “We can hit any target within a few kilometers o’ us, an’ only the fastest could react to our attack. But I got the feelin’ that there’s somethin’ more.”

She did not respond.

“So,” Gin finished, “what secrets do ya have left to tell me?”

He knew that Shinsō would take her sweet time in answering, but he could be patient.

“Why should I tell you?”

Well, that was quick.

“Any reason why ya shouldn’t?”

“You have yet to earn it.”

This time, Gin decided to be the one to make her wait as he carefully considered his next words.

“Explain.” Correction: his next _word_ , as in singular.

“Consider the name of our Bankai, Kamishini no Yari. The Godslayer Spear,” Shinsō began to lecture. “In the natural order of things, the beings of the divine can strike down hapless mortals without fear of repercussion. But not us. If we are crossed, the reach of our fang and the speed of our strike can pierce even the throne of the heavens, and render unto the immortals the taste of death. We can turn the tables, and make the heavenly fear of a quick end just as mortals fear an unexpected demise at the hands of an angry god.

“But piercing a god and killing it are two very different things,” she continued. “So meditate on this question: how can we make a blade kill our enemy in one strike, even if we merely scratch his arm?”

“Poison,” Gin answered immediately.

Shinsō looked at him carefully, her smug smirk frozen for a moment. Then, it grew just so slightly into a one of pleased satisfaction.

“Correct,” she conceded. “But knowing the answer is not enough for me.”

“How can I convince ya?” Gin asked.

“Prove to me that you can make our fang pierce the skin of those who call themselves gods,” she answered promptly. “Show me that we can make the divine bleed, and I will tell you how to use our venom to slay them from the inside.”

“Well, if I come across any gods, I’ll take ya up on that challenge.”

“Good,” Shinsō smirked lightly, and then suggested, “I would advise that you leave soon. Rangiku and Haineko are at it again.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea,” Gin agreed, and exited his zanpakutō’s realm.

* * *

Rangiku fled her inner world seething. If there had been a door, she would have slammed it behind her. “That selfish, lazy, moody, vain…”

“Haineko bein’ uncooperative again?”

She glared at her husband’s smug expression.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’” he noted cheekily.

“If she wasn’t so stubborn, we would have Bankai by now!” Rangiku ranted. “I’ve got enough reiatsu for materialization, so _what is her problem?!_ ”

“Ya mean she hasn’t told ya?” Gin asked, his smile on its Mildly Confused setting.

“Of course not!” she snapped.

There was a moment of pause as Gin regarded her with a controlled expression even she had difficulty discerning.

“What?” Rangiku asked irritably.

“Mind tellin’ me what exactly went on with Haineko?” he asked.

“I went into Jinzen, I told Haineko to tell me how to get Bankai, she insulted me, and things went downhill from there,” she recounted.

Gin seemed to ponder her brief story for a few moments. Then he sighed and said, “I’ve been thinkin’ fer a while now ‘bout why yer havin’ so much trouble with yer zanpakutō these past few years. I didn’t wanna say nothin’ before, ‘cause I thought it’d be best if ya figured it out fer yerself.”

Rangiku frowned, but nodded for him to go on.

“First o’ all, remember the basics,” he started. “Zanpakutō are the extensions of our soul. So whatever problems Haineko has with ya, they’re problems ya have with yerself. If ya want Bankai, then ya need to be honest with yerself when talkin’ with yer zanpakutō.”

“But I _have_ ,” Rangiku protested.

“Normally, I’d agree with ya,” Gin replied. “But obviously, there’s an issue goin’ on that ya need to resolve.”

“I’m not the one with the problem!” she contested hotly. “ _She’s_ the one who refuses-!”

“Rangiku.”

The heat of her argument went dead at his single word of admonishment. That was because as he spoke, Gin was frowning at her. And to be quite frank the sight was rather creepy. There was no annoyance or anger tainting that frown, but rather something worse: disappointment.

“You will go into yer inner world, and you will talk with Haineko until you have straightened things out between the two o’ ya,” Captain Ichimaru Gin ordered her. He did not exercise his rank like this often, but when he did, people _obeyed_ , even her.

Throughout most of their marriage and friendship before that, Rangiku had acted as Gin’s conscience, preventing him from going too far into the dark areas of morality. Her unique position as best friend, then girlfriend, and finally wife allowed her to question his command and even outright disobey his orders when she deemed him in the wrong. She tried not to exercise this right too often to prevent a breakdown in the chain of command, and fortunately, occasions which required her to intercede occurred less and less often as time went on.

But on some occasions, Gin would take it upon himself to give a direct order to her when he felt it was required. Unlike her influence on him, which was based on moral grounds and emotional connectivity with others, Gin intervened when she was being foolish or about to act on some particularly stupid and brash plan. He was the only person who had both the authority to give her an order, and was able to prevent her stupidity from occurring in the first place by mere basis of the fact that he knew her so well.

Rangiku was about to give a reluctant acknowledgment of his command when the attention of the four shinigami was diverted to a Garganta that had just opened in the sky.

“Arrancar?!” Yumichika cried. “Already?”

“Looks like they wanted a rematch sooner than we thought,” Gin remarked, and Rangiku was comforted by the fact that his smile had returned to his face.

They saw one of the newly arrived enemies take off in another direction.

“Let him go,” Gin instructed, his smile thankfully back in its normal position. “We got enough trouble right here.”

His comment was accentuated when the largest of the Arrancar dove towards the task force. Gin decided that he would be the one to greet him, and blocked the overhead strike the giant had brought down with Shinsō.

“Ichimaru Gin,” the silver fox introduced himself; manners would not hurt here. “Captain of the Third Division.”

“Yammy, Arrancar Ten,” the large antagonist grinned back.

“Ten, huh?” Gin replied. “So yer an Espada.”

“Looks like you’re in the know,” Yammy said. “Whatever loser you fought must’ve had a big mouth.”

“So I guess I need to actually try to kill ya, huh?”

Gin exerted a bit of his reiatsu, and shoved his large opponent backwards.

Even though his limiter was already released the moment the Arrancar appeared, Gin did not feel too bad about going to Shikai in this fight, since he was dealing with an Espada.

“Shoot to kill, Shinsō!”

The blade snapped out and rushed at Yammy, but the brute managed to block the attack. He swatted the extended metal to the side and charged forward with his sword raised high.

In the time it took for the Espada to make one, very easily side-stepped attack, Shinsō had already returned to her initial length.

“Yammy!”

Gin took a look at the other, apparently higher-ranked Arrancar who had spoken. This one resembled the exact opposite of his comrade, so puny and underdeveloped it looked like they should have kept him in the Hōgyoku oven a few minutes longer

“Let me have a go at the creepy guy, too,” he said, “I’ll release my sword and take them on four to one, and finish them all off!”

He gripped the hilt of his sword and began extracting it from its sheath with exaggerated slowness. While Gin knew that this dramatic gesture was a sign of overconfidence, he did _not_ want to give the Espada a chance to release his sword. The faster they could end this fight, the better.

The Espada screamed in pain as Gin’s extendable fang pierced his hand, forcing him to let go of his sword.

“You…” the effeminate Arrancar growled.

Gin did not stop in his attack, letting Shinsō strike again.

This time the Espada managed to dodge the attack, and reached for his sword with his left hand. He learned from his mistake and drew as fast as he could.

“Strangle, Trepadora!”

The explosion of reiatsu forced Gin to cover his eyes with his arm.

An instant later, a long tentacle suddenly came out of the smoke behind him. Sensing the attack, Gin swung around and blocked it with his sword. The power behind the blow pushed him back several meters, but he managed to shield himself from harm.

“That all ya got?” the narrow-eyed fighter asked, his smile now more mocking.

“Nice defense!” came the compliment from the smoke cloud. “I didn’t think you would have actually managed to block that completely. I’m actually a little surprised. You captain-class shinigami are tougher than I thought. But, what would you do if I multiplied that attack by eight?”

The smoke finally cleared completely, and revealed the eight arms that had grown out of the Espada’s back. The other seven tentacles came about and joined the first. While the sudden assault nearly took Gin by surprise, he quickly recovered; after all, speed was his specialty. With a single step of shunpo, the captain disappeared just as the tentacles were about to reach him.

“And good reflexes, too!” his octopus-like enemy continued. “But can you keep up an eight-on-one fight?”

“Yes,” Gin answered back.

“Oh?” the multi-armed Arrancar said skeptically. “Aren’t you the confident one? Let me guess: you’re going to release your Bankai on me.”

“Normally, I hate bein’ predictable, but I’ll allow it this time,” the vulpine shinigami replied, and then crouched slightly over, Shinsō held parallel to the ground and pointed at the Espada. Then Gin leisurely declared, “Bankai.”

Argent flames burned off the captain’s reiatsu as it launched to new levels. 

“Kamishini no Yari.”

Most second releases were trumpeted into existence by a large explosion and cloud of smoke. This Bankai’s only herald was a bell’s hiss, and in the time it took to form a thought, the viper had struck.

A white streak impaled the Espada through the gut, leaving its victim staring at the offending blade in shocked horror.

Before the enemy could react, Kamishini no Yari was at mere wakizashi length again.

“ _That’s_ your Bankai?” the Arrancar said incredulously as he held a hand to his wound. “But it’s the same!”

“Yer not so different, with ya whipping yer arms out like that.”

“I suppose, but even with that little Bankai of yours, I can still take you; I _do_ outnumber you, after all.”

To enforce his boast, the cephalopod Arrancar struck out with his extra appendages at the captain. With even more ease than before, Gin flash-stepped the attack. “Too slow,” he informed the Arrancar.

“Actually, it was just right,” the Espada replied smugly, and revealed that Rangiku was now wrapped in a tentacle and being used as a shield. His eyebrows rose in surprise as he realized that his adversary had sent only seven arms at him, and used the eighth to snag her.

“I couldn’t help but notice how lovely this woman was,” the Sexta said. “Judging by the badge, I’d say she’s your second-in-command, isn’t she?”

The Third Division captain kept his stance unnaturally still; even his smile remained as it was, though a close look at his face would reveal that this expression was merely his lips turning upward; it was _not_ a smile.

“That’s what I thought,” the Arrancar chuckled, and brought another one of his tendrils to Rangiku’s face, and several spikes emerged from the end. “Now that your pretty little lieutenant is in my hands, there are only two ways this battle can end.” He held up one finger. “You can throw down your sword and let me pummel you to death, but I’ll let her go free.” He put up another finger. “Or, I can kill her now, and then kill you after you fully realize that you could not save your dear subordinate.”

“Gin, _please_ make him stop talking,” Rangiku groaned. “He’s making me sick.”

“Very well, I won’t let you listen to my voice anymore…,” the Espada purred mockingly.

And the spiked tentacle charged at the captive woman.

“…by punching that lovely body of yours full of holes!”

“Growl, Haineko!”

A twist of her wrist ordered a cloud of ash to rush upwards in her defense. In the mere second before the Sexta’s spikes would have pierced Rangiku’s chest, Haineko pushed the tentacle upward. The motion was enough that it was prevented from inflicting a fatal blow, but she did not emerge unscathed. Just as the spikes were ascending, they made contact with Rangiku’s face. At first the scratches were shallow, but during their brief journey, the lacerations deepened and began to bleed profusely from the sudden breaches in the skin.

Rangiku did not scream, but her teeth-clenched groan of pain was audible to all participants in the vicinity, and she reflexively threw her head back in a vain attempt to escape the claws.

“Oops, missed,” Luppi chuckled as the last of the spikes finally broke off contact with Rangiku. But a second later, he froze in terror as he realized that one of his tentacles suddenly felt much shorter than it did a second ago.

A glance down revealed to him that his former captive woman, while still restrained by his now-detached arm, was in free fall.

The Espada whipped out another protrusion to snatch his prisoner back into his clutches, only to meet resistance in the form of the Eleventh Division’s Third Seat.

Ikkaku put his entire body strength into pushing the assaulting limb back, while behind him, Yumichika was catching Rangiku in his arms and carrying her off. As soon as they were in the clear, the shaved warrior broke off his resistance as well, and followed the peacock’s trail.

They were not running away from a fight; they were just eager to escape the danger zone whose center was Ichimaru Gin. While neither Ikkaku nor Yumichika had personally witnessed what Gin would do if his wife was ever harmed, they could take a few guesses. And normally, they would be taking front row seats at the spectacle while eating popcorn, but Rangiku needed to be taken to Urahara’s Shop as quickly as possible for healing. There was also the fact that the serpentine captain might take after Kenpachi’s lead and not care who got in his way in a fight, even if it meant hurting his own allies.

Yes, it would be best if they all kept their distance.

“Where do ya think you’re going?”

The two Eleventh men turned upward to see the larger Espada charging at them from above with his fist raised high.

Only to meet the blade of Urahara Kisuke.

“As you were, gentlemen,” the Geta-boshi said calmly to the two warriors.

Ikkaku and Yumichika nodded, and continued their rush to Urahara’s Shop.

Just before they exited hearing range, the green-clad warrior’s words reached their ears as he spoke to Yammy, “So, what shall we do with you?”

* * *

Gin was sure Rangiku would survive. The wounds were in non-vital regions, and he could feel her reiatsu signature still emitting a strong pulse. What truly concerned him was the nature of the wound. She would survive, but she would be scarred. Of course, Gin loved his wife, and he wouldn’t care if she had the face of Yamamoto, but he knew Rangiku took pride in her beauty. An injury like this would hurt her self-esteem far more than it would threaten her life.

Rangiku would survive, and Gin would make sure that she would recover, both mentally and physically. But right now, he needed to indulge in his rare thirst for revenge.

Speaking of which, he now had the complete and total attention of the wasp-waisted Espada.

“You’re going to pay for that,” the Hollow said in a deadly calm voice, his mutilated tentacle held to accentuate his threat.

Gin did not think words were appropriate right now, so he did not bother responding; he would let Kamishini no Yari speak for him.

Then, as if imitating his opponent, Gin held up a single finger before his face.

That's one.

* * *

Luppi glared at the shinigami who dared to think himself strong enough to go against him. Oh, how he would enjoy breaking the man’s body bit by bit.

There was the sound of shunpo being executed, and Ichimaru disappeared from his sight. A moment later, another flash of light signaled that an arm had been severed, this time directly at the base. There was no growing that limb back.

Luppi pivoted on his feet to face the captain’s new position, and froze in terror. Ichimaru was no longer wearing his trademark creepy-friendly smile; it had transformed into something more feral and more bloodthirsty. It was not like the battle-loving grins of Nnoitra or Grimmjow, which reminded him of larger carnivores such as tigers or wolves. This smile was something more cunning; it threatened death in such a way that the victim would not see it coming, like that of a snake or crocodile.

The octopus-like Arrancar no longer felt like a solid member of the Espada; more like he was prey in the eyes of a hungry predator.

Luppi growled at the thought. He was one of the most powerful beings in existence, an Espada selected by Aizen himself; he would _not_ tremble in front of this weak shinigami.

Floating across from him, the smug bastard now casually held up two fingers. Luppi went rigid with fury as it finally dawned on him what that gesture was meant to imply.

“Die!”

He threw one of his living weapons towards the captain, spikes extended and fully ready to pierce the man’s body.

Ichimaru did not even try to dodge. Instead he raised his sword so that it was pointing forward.

A second later, Luppi was screaming. This time, Ichimaru did not amputate one of his limbs. Not completely. His strike had cut the Espada’s attacking tentacle neatly in two, with one half trailing to the ground and joining the remains of the other limbs. However, the other half remained attached to his body, now no more than dead weight.

Luppi glared back up to Ichimaru, who was still grinning like a madman at his handiwork, three fingers now raised mockingly. In part rage, and part panic, Luppi attacked with all of his remaining limbs.

A second later, three more writhing amputated whips had joined their mates.

Ichimaru suddenly appeared a foot in front of Luppi. Five fingers.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" the Arrancar screamed, and fired a point-blank Cero from his mouth, sending his two remaining spike-tipped limbs at the man from separate directions. They were too close, there was no way for him to dodge now!

The tentacles collided only with each other. The beam passed into the distance without harming anyone.

Ichimaru vanished from view, and the beam of light that Luppi was starting to become terrifyingly familiar with severed another appendage.

The panicked Espada screamed, enraged and terrified at his helplessness. Gin chose not to wait for him to attack again. His Bankai sped out and not only severed Luppi's last arm, she also bit into the Espada's torso, removing a chunk of flesh.

Luppi spun about in desperation, to find Ichimaru holding up thumb and pointer finger together in the classic symbol of 'zero'.

And in that moment, Luppi realized that the captain was not fighting him; he was _torturing_ him.

With that revelation, the octopus-like Hollow now had a dilemma on his hands. While he knew that he was just being toyed with, and still being thoroughly beaten, the thought of retreating did not sit well with him.

His survival instincts won out, and the Sexta Espada turned tail and ran as fast as he could.

But evidently, Ichimaru was not finished with him yet; just a couple feet in front of him, the captain reappeared. And that bloodthirsty smile still adorned his face.

“S-stay away from me!” Luppi yelled in panic and took several steps backward. “Come any closer, and I’ll kill you!”

As if to chastise the Arrancar for his empty threat, Ichimaru lifted up his Bankai once more, and pointed it straight at his enemy.

Luppi gasped, and was about to turn tail again, when the familiar glow of the Negacion came down and enveloped him.

The Espada laughed in relief, and decided right there and then that yellow was his new favorite color.

His laughter stopped cold for a moment as he saw right in front of his face was the point of the shinigami’s Bankai. If the Negacion had come even a nanosecond later, he would have been killed.

Luppi started laughing even harder at realizing how close he had come to death.

“Better luck next time, shinigami!” he cackled. “But remember my face, because next time we meet, I’ll rip your head off!”

Ichimaru, who had frowned when the Negacion had prevented his kill, smiled again at the Espada’s words.

“Come back an’ play again,” he spoke for the first time since the torture session had begun. “I look forward to it.”

Luppi’s laughter stopped cold at that remark, and a shudder ran through his body.

* * *

Gin watched as the sky returned to its normal blue color, essentially giving the all-clear to the shinigami task force that the Arrancar team had indeed left the world of the living.

Now that the enemy was gone, the captain of the Third Division ran off to Urahara’s Shop to check on his wife’s condition.

As he made his way to their unofficial base of operations, a memory came to Gin’s mind, about a situation not unlike the one he had been in today.

* * *

_“Gin.”_

_The lieutenant turned his head to the captain who had called his name._

_“Ya need somethin’, Kyōraku-taichō?” he asked._

_“I want to talk to you about the mission,” the larger man said in an unusually serious voice._

_“What ‘bout it? We got it done, didn’t we? Yeah, Rangiku got hurt, but she’s gonna be fine.”_

_“The other team members informed me of what you did to the Hollow that hurt Rangiku-chan,” Kyōraku said, his tone clearly indicating disapproval. “They told me that while it only took cost you a minute to come out on top, it took you a half-hour for you to finally purify it.”_

_Gin’s smile did not shift in the slightest._

_“I’m not going to tell you that what you did was wrong,” Kyōraku said. “Believe it or not, I do know the rage you feel when someone close to you gets hurt. And I know that it can make you lose control of yourself. But that’s the thing: from what I heard, you_ didn’t _lose control.”_

_His vice-captain did not respond with either an affirmative or a denial._

_“I thought so. You spent a half-hour deliberately keeping a Hollow alive so you could torture it._

_“Gin, the next time you feel the urge to take revenge, make it quick, and get it over with. I know that it won’t appeal to your blood thirst, but it is the more sensible thing to do. The longer you keep your enemy alive, the greater the chance it could get away.”_

_“That’s why I cut the legs off first.”_

_Kyōraku was not amused that the smart-aleck comment was the first thing the boy had said since the conversation started. Other authority figures might have been enraged by such lack of respect, but the captain knew better; he knew that Gin would not really care about anything he said regarding revenge methods. So he moved on to a more significant problem._

_“What bothers me more,” Kyōraku continued, “is how you treated your subordinates when they tried to put the Hollow out of its misery before you were finished with it.”_

_The smile still stayed on Gin’s face, but the older man could tell that the boy knew he was in more dangerous waters now._

_“While I am eternally grateful that you managed to have enough restraint not to harm them, they are now quite horrified by you,” Kyōraku continued. “And I know that you don’t really care much about what people think of you, but you need to remember that this doesn’t affect only you.”_

_“Whatcha mean by that?” Gin asked with a curious tilt of his head._

_“Those officers are going to talk, as people are wont to do,” Kyōraku started to explain. “And when they do, they are going to talk about the psychotic tendencies of their lieutenant. Details on your violent inclinations will vary, of course, but what they most certainly will include will be the fact that Ichimaru-fukutaichō will slowly torture to death anyone who lays a finger on Matsumoto Rangiku.”_

_While Gin did not say anything that time, the look on his face clearly asked, “And the problem with that is_ what _, exactly?”_

_“Now let me ask you this,” Kyōraku finished. “How do you think Rangiku-chan’s friends are going to treat her after they hear these rumors?”_

_Bull’s-eye. Gin’s smile dropped, and for the first time, he looked a little ashamed at his previous actions. That was actually more of a reaction than Kyōraku had expected, but he couldn’t say he was that surprised. While Gin was utterly remorseless when it came to killing and torturing those who hurt Rangiku, he was also conscious of the fact that his girlfriend was far more sociable and mentally stable than he was. And he also knew how much Rangiku loved her friends, and he did not want anything to endanger her happiness. Whether people would avoid her because they feared Gin’s wrath, or because they feared she might share his bloodthirsty tendencies, it did not matter; it would hurt Rangiku._

_“So, now that you understand the consequences of your actions,” Kyōraku said after he had allowed enough time for his previous question to sink in, “you are hereby ordered to go to those officers you terrified on that mission and apologize to them.”_

_Still lacking his smile, Gin gave him a skeptical look._

_“I mean it,” the captain said. “If you want people to follow you, you need to let them know that you are not going to kill them on a whim. If you apologize and let them know in your own special way that you will continue to be the same person they’ve always known, it will put them more at ease.”_

_The lieutenant thought it over for a bit before nodding._

_“And after you’re done with that, there’s a stack of paperwork that needs to be done.”_

_Rumors of Lieutenant Ichimaru’s mental instability declined after word got around that he actually apologized to the officers he had terrorized. And they stopped completely after a mysterious someone had managed to put itching powder in the laundry of the Eighth Division personnel._

_That was when the other officers were reassured that Ichimaru Gin was just another normal, crazy person in the Gotei 13._

* * *

Gin realized that his former captain had accurately predicted the day’s outcome. He had spent too much time playing with his prey, and so it got away from him. So, now the Sexta Espada was free to go back and recover from his wounds, and continue to be an asset to Aizen’s plans. Gin swore to himself that he would keep his captain’s lesson in mind, to control his temper and win the fight _quickly_ and efficiently.

* * *

 **Author’s Note:** I think that Gin always had a cruel streak in him, but I also think it was tempered by his friendship with Rangiku. However, in order to get closer to Aizen, he let his sociopathic tendencies out and let it become a part of him to gain the man’s trust. Since in this timeline, Gin has had the influence of Rangiku close to him, his sadistic side is a lot more muted, but still emerges in certain situations.

Thank you, **Juliedoo** , **TakaSasuke** , **CoatHooks** , **TykkiMikk** , **haeye** and anonymous guests for reviewing my story.

* * *

**Omake: Illustrated Shinigami Guide**

Kyōraku was napping softly, but in the year since he had made Gin his lieutenant, he had learned to keep an ear out for whatever mischief the silver boy would think up in order to motivate his division head into work.

“Hey, Kyōraku-taichō.”

The captain opened his eyes in surprise and saw Gin approaching openly.

“There’s someone in yer office,” the lieutenant informed him.

“Who?” Kyōraku asked.

“One o’ the unseated officers,” he answered, and then in a conspiratorial whisper, he added, “An’ she’s cute, too.”

The captain sighed and got up. Even though there were decent odds that Gin was pulling his leg, he should check it out anyway (especially if there was the chance of a cute girl involved).

Kyōraku walked into his office, raised an eyebrow, and looked at his lieutenant.

Gin shrugged innocently and said, “What? I did say she was cute.”

One Yet-To-Hit-Puberty Ise Nanao reddened at the silver-haired second’s compliment.

“Sorry, Kyōraku-taichō,” she said softly. “Ichimaru-san asked me to wait in your office.”

“As long as yer here, captain,” Gin smiled mischievously, “ya might as well get some work done.”

“One of these days, Gin,” Kyōraku sighed and sat despondently at his desk.

* * *

 **AO3 Commentary:** To those who think that Gin has been “too nice” this story, this is to reassure you that, yes, Gin still has sadistic tendencies, though it’s reserved for “deserving targets.”

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mention to Noiram ARDA for the comment.


	11. Calm Before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gin comforts Rangiku, and Rangiku confronts Haineko.

**Originally published 11/19/2013**

* * *

“Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring! Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm! The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Hadō Number Sixty-Three: Raikōhō!”

Upon completing the incantation, a powerful bolt of electrical kidō erupted from Hinamori’s hand and utterly destroyed the large rock designated as her target.

“Good job, Hinamori-kun,” Kira complimented upon observing the handiwork of his training partner.

“Thank you, Kira-kun!” Hinamori chirped, glad that she was finally able to master the higher-level hadō spell.

“Now try it without the incantation.”

Hinamori nodded and looked around for another boulder as a target. Finding a suitable target, she gathered her energy. While she was skilled at kidō, Hinamori did not have the raw spiritual strength necessary to pull off higher level spells without incantation as effortlessly as others. Of course, that was the point of these training sessions; to build up her spiritual muscle so that her spells could pack a bigger punch, even if she skipped the incantation. While she was quite knowledgeable about the mechanics behind the higher level kidō spells, the true challenge was summoning enough reiatsu to cast it with sufficient power

She inhaled, held her breath, and exhaled.

“Hadō Number Sixty-Three: Raikōhō!”

This time, the destructive spell only blackened and charred the rock, instead of destroying it outright, as had the previous attempt had.

“Hadō Number Sixty-Three: Raikōhō!”

The second try was filled with more power, and the rock shattered in a much more satisfactory fashion.

“Let’s switch for a moment,” Kira suggested. “You watch, I’ll practice.”

Hinamori nodded in agreement.

* * *

_“Did you call us here to give us more training?” Hinamori hesitantly asked._

_“Actually, yer gonna have to teach yerselves fer a while,” Ichimaru answered_

_“Why?” she blinked in surprise._

_“I’m leadin’ a team out to the world o’ the livin’, so I can’t be the one to train ya fer now,” he explained._

_“I’ll come with you!” Hinamori declared, and she looked at Kira and asked, “What about you, Kira-kun?”_

_Before he could answer, Ichimaru did for him, “He ain’t comin’. An’ neither are ya, Hinamori-chan.”_

_“But why not?” the elfin girl demanded._

_“’Cause I’ve already got Rangiku, Rukia-chan, Abarai-kun, Ikkaku an’ Yumichika goin’. I can’t really take any more.”_

_Hinamori crossed her arms and gave a mild pout._

_“So before I head out, I wanna give ya a lil’ homework assignment,” Ichimaru told them. “Talk with yer zanpakutō. Make sure that ya know yer first release as well as ya think ya do. If yer good ‘nough by the time I get back, I’ll help ya out on materialization.”_

* * *

Hinamori shook herself from the memory, and focused her attention on her friend’s practice session. Upon observing how Kira cast his spells, she was reminded once more how much stronger he was than her. While she had to concentrate and focus her power in order to make a decent Raikōhō, he seemed to make one even bigger than hers without too much effort.

Finally, Kira let out a concluding sigh which signaled the end of his practice for now. He turned to her and offered, “Do you want to go to the river to wash up?”

“No, you can go ahead first,” Hinamori smiled. “I think you need it more.”

A quick smirk graced his lips before he nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” he told her, and walked away.

Once she was alone, Hinamori pulled out the slip of paper from her shihakusho. She had written down the incantation for this spell she wanted to attempt. She wanted to wait until Kira was gone to try this spell, as he would most certainly try to stop her if he knew she was planning this. But on the other hand, she did want him in the immediate vicinity in case things went… wrong.

She inhaled once, and began to chant the spell.

* * *

Gin meandered aimlessly through the streets of Karakura Town. There was nothing he could do while Tessai finished healing Rangiku, so he would take his mind off things by seeing if there were any Hollows he could unleash his pain out on.

Instead, he came across a whole soul, a little girl to be more exact. She was sitting with her back against an alley wall, and she had her arms across her knees, her head sheltered between them. He suspected she was crying with the intent of keeping her tears silent. With nothing better to do, he decided to jump down and see what her story was before performing konsō.

Upon closer examination, he saw that she didn’t look much older than Rangiku had when he had first found her. The image made his smile turn friendlier, and he announced his presence with, “Hey there.”

The girl yelped and jumped to her feet like a spooked cat.

“How are ya?” Gin asked conversationally.

She declined to answer, and her eyes darted to the sides, obviously seeking an escape route.

“Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna hurt ya,” he assured her.

The girl did not appear convinced by his words.

“What’s yer name?”

Hesitantly, she answered, “Ayame.”

“So, Ayame-chan,” Gin squatted down to her eye-level, “Why are ya here by yerself?”

This time, she kept mum.

“Since ya don’t feel like talkin’, I ask yes or no questions, an’ ya can just nod or shake yer head,” he suggested. “That okay?”

She nodded once.

“Okay, first off, ya know yer dead now, right?”

Nod.

“Next question: have ya seen Hollows? Big scary monster with a hole in its chest?”

Nod.

“Ya got family? Family ya love, an’ they love ya right back?”

Nod.

“Do ya know where Hollows come from?”

Shake.

His grin became more pronounced as he told her, “From ghosts just like ya.”

Ayame’s eyes widened.

“Ya see, more time yer a ghost here, the sadder or madder ya get. Ya get jealous o’ all those livin’ people who are still happy an’ carefree. Slowly, it changes ya, an’ before ya know it, yer a monster.”

The girl seemed frozen with horror.

“Oh, an’ the first people a Hollow wants to eat? Their family.”

Ayame’s jaw dropped, and her breath started to come at a faster rate. Her chain of fate jingled slightly at the rapid movement of her chest.

“I take it ya don’t want that to happen.”

The comment seemed to make her reign in her fear and deliver a “no duh” look at him. That was good; it meant the girl had a fighting spirit in her.

“The other option is to let me send ya on to the next life, where _I’m_ from. It’s called Soul Society; ya won’t be hungry, but there are gonna be a lot of bullies around who might wanna hurt ya. But if yer smart an’ quick, you’ll get by.”

She seemed to think about his words for a moment, and then gave a consenting nod. Gin drew his zanpakutō and quickly tapped her forehead, making her jump in surprise again.

“Good luck, Ayame-chan,” he bid her farewell as the girl disappeared, and a small black butterfly danced away on the wind.

He watched the departing insect for a few moments longer before calling out, “Ya can come down now, Rukia-chan.”

A moment later the petite spy jumped from off the roof nearby and bowed to him. “I apologize for my rudeness, Ichimaru-taichō,” Rukia said, “I-!”

“Oh, hush an’ stand up,” Gin cut her off. “Ya were curious, an’ ya didn’t think you’d get caught.”

The girl winced as she straightened up and said, “I’m very sorry-!”

“I said, ‘hush.’ I ain’t finished yet.”

Rukia flinched again and closed her mouth.

“If yer gonna spy on someone, ya need to remember to rein in yer reiatsu,” Gin chastised her.

“I thought I did…”

“Whatever ya did, it wasn’t good ‘nough. Ya need to work on controlling yer reiatsu.”

Rukia’s left eye twitched at his instruction, and Gin knew quite well why; she had given that same admonishment to Ichigo numerous times.

“Got what I said?”

She nodded.

“Good. Jus’ remember that not everyone’s gonna be as nice as me when they catch you spyin’ on them.”

“I don’t make a habit out of eavesdropping!” Rukia protested.

Gin turned his smile to his Skeptical setting, but he did not comment further. Instead, he changed the subject by asking, “Wanna hear a secret?”

She looked at him cautiously. He beckoned her with a single finger encouragingly, and she stepped closer to him with a measure of reluctance. Then he leaned over and whispered into her ear, “That was my first konsō.”

He stood up straight again to observe Rukia’s reaction. It was milder than he had hoped for; only a blink of surprise, followed by a furrowed eyebrow of contemplation, and then returned her focus on him in the hopes of elaboration.

“Work in the human world is mostly done by unseated shinigami,” Gin indulged her. “Right after I completed the Academy, I joined the Eighth an’ became a Fifth Seat.”

Rukia’s eyes widened in amazement, but he acted like he hadn’t noticed.

“Kyōraku-taichō had this idea that I wasn’t very good with helpin’ people move on to the next life.” The expression on the noble’s face told him that she could very much believe that. He ignored it and continued, “So I didn’t go to the world o’ the livin’ unless it was to deal with a more difficult Hollow, like a Menos.”

Rukia thought over his words, and then cautiously ventured, “In hindsight, I suppose it’s not surprising. You didn’t act anything like the teachers taught us to at the Academy.”

“What, ya mean tellin’ ‘em that they’re goin’ to a better place?” Gin replied with an atypical snort. “That’s a lie, an’ we both know it. If we really do want to help these whole souls, then we should give it to ‘em straight.”

“Maybe,” she said uncertainly. “But maybe they should also enjoy a few moments of peace before they move on. Most of these humans have worked hard in their lives, so they deserve to be in a state of serenity before they have to face the Rukongai.”

“Is that what you’d want?” Gin questioned.

“I was just a baby when I came to Soul Society,” Rukia protested.

“I know that, but that ain’t what I’m askin’.”

The former vagabond bit her lip as she thought about it, but finally she shook her head slightly.

“Uh-huh,” Gin nodded at her response.

“So what do you suggest I do then?” Rukia asked softly. “Be brutally honest?”

“Up to ya,” he shrugged lightly. “Yer a big girl… sorta.” She narrowed her eyes at the jibe, but did not react further. “I’m sure ya can decide what’s best.”

Deciding that he had spent enough time meandering about, Gin patted Rukia on the head affectionately as he passed her and returned to Urahara’s Shop to check on Rangiku. He ignored the puzzled look the diminutive brunette gave him as he departed.

* * *

“Unohana-taichō!”

The leader of the Fourth Division looked at the caller. It was Lieutenant Kira, and held gingerly in his arms was an unconscious Hinamori.

“What happened?” she asked without hesitation as she led them to a room where the patient could be treated.

“Hinamori-kun and I were practicing kidō,” Kira started to explain. “We were taking a break, and I left to freshen up in the river. I felt her reiatsu spike, and I came back in time to hear her yell out a high-level spell.”

“Which one?”

He told her.

“What was she thinking?” Unohana remarked, only mildly surprised. While she had plenty of experience with people practicing with spells they were not ready for, even this case was a bit extreme. “Place her gently on the bed.”

“I apologize, Unohana-taichō,” Kira said as he followed the captain’s instructions. “I should not have left her.”

“It’s not your fault she tried to tackle a spell she was not ready to cast,” the healer told him. “I am going to have a frank talk with her when she wakes up.”

“So she’ll be all right?” Kira asked hopefully.

“Yes, it just looks like she used too much of her spiritual power at once,” she reassured him. “She’ll be asleep for the rest of the day and through tonight, but should wake up and be fine tomorrow. Still, I would advise against any strenuous activity for another couple of days.”

“That’s good,” he sighed in relief.

Unohana took another look over Hinamori’s reiatsu levels.

“Kira-fukutaichō,” she said to him. “Out of academic curiosity, did she manage to succeed in completing the spell?”

“I’ve never seen it personally, but from what I’ve read about it, it looked like she did,” Kira answered.

* * *

“How is she?” Gin asked without preamble as he saw Urahara’s faithful employee waiting in the shop.

“She’ll be just fine,” Tessai answered confidently. “Right now, she’s in one of the rooms resting.”

“I figured that, since yer here an’ not in there working on her.”

The larger man nodded, and continued, “However, I was not able to heal all the scars… and well…”

“She’s not takin’ it well.”

“I’m afraid not.”

“I’ll talk to her,” and he started to walk past the healer.

Tessai blocked his path. “She insisted on having no visitors, Ichimaru-taichō!”

Gin gave the ex-Kidō Corps Commander a look. The larger man sighed and stood aside to let him pass. “First door on the left.”

The captain nodded to the hulking giant and walked further into the building. He approached the door and knocked lightly.

“Go away!”

“It’s me, Rangiku,” Gin told her, an eyebrow cocked at her snappish tone.

“I want to be alone right now,” she said in a slightly softer voice.

For most men, that would have been enough. The rule of thumb for dealing with women, in the eyes of anyone with a Y-chromosome, was if they said they needed to be alone, they were to be left alone.

Gin was not like most men, and so engaged in the questionable action of sliding the door open and entering the room, closing it shut behind him. He saw his wife sitting on the ground, and approached her from behind.

“I said, go away,” she growled before he got too close.

“Relax, I’m jus’ here to check up on ya,” he replied.

“I’m fine,” she informed him unconvincingly.

“Good,” Gin said cheerfully with a mild seasoning of mocking in his voice. “Then that means we can go ahead an’ have some Glad-To-Be-Alive kisses, and some Glad-To-Be-Alive sex later when we have more privacy.”

“I’m _not_ in the mood.”

“Didn’t ya jus’ say you were fine?”

“ _Go away!_ ”

“No.”

Rangiku’s body froze with ire and disbelief, and he knew she _really_ wanted to give him one of her best death glares. But she still sat resolutely with her face concealed from him.

Gin waited patiently; he knew that the walls were slowly crumbling down, and she would soon confess to him her insecurities.

There it was. Her body seemed to sag, and she let out a sigh as she softly admitted, “I don’t want you to see me like this.”

“Why not?”

“Why not? _Why not?!_ ” her voice took a new aggressive, hurt tone. “Because I’m disfigured! I’m as hideous now as Haineko always said I was! I, I…”

She lost the passion in her voice, and tripped over the last sentence. She was near tears, Gin could tell. But he knew that even something like this wouldn’t make them fall from her eyes.

“Rangiku, there ain’t nothin’ in the world that can convince me that yer ugly,” he assured her in a gentle voice he never used with anyone except her, and took a couple steps closer. “So whatever the Espada did to ya, it can’t be that bad.”

“Yes it can,” she replied a little hoarsely.

“Lemme be the judge o’ that,” he said.

“I’ll have Orihime-chan take care of the scars,” Rangiku retorted. “So there’s no reason for you to ever see me like this.”

“Two problems,” Gin countered. “Yer my wife, an’ I love ya, so yer beautiful no matter what ya look like.”

She let out a skeptical snort.

“Two, Orihime-chan’s in Soul Society, so who knows how long it’ll be ‘fore she can heal ya.”

She kept her back to him, but there was thoughtfulness to her silence, and Gin knew he was breaking through to her.

“I know it’s shallow of me,” Rangiku said softly. “But I don’t want you to see me as an ugly hag.”

He was now close enough that he could touch her. And he did so, by squatting down to her level and placing a hand lightly on her shoulder. Contact established, he then repeated, “You’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.”

She sat there quietly for a few moments more, before she finally whispered, “…Okay.”

Slowly, she shifted her body so that she was facing him. The last part she turned towards him was her face, shielded until the last moment by her jaw-length hair, and when she finally looked into his eyes, she studied his face to discern the slightest bit of reaction from him.

While she was looking at his face, Gin was gazing intently at hers. He was right; it _wasn’t_ that bad. Despite the pack of spikes that had been on the end of the Espada’s tentacle, it seemed that only three would leave permanent marks on Rangiku’s face, thanks to Tessai’s healing skills. There were other white lines which told him of the potential damage which thankfully did not occur. The three scars which would take permanent residence on her face were in the center. Two began on either side of the bridge of her nose, creating a notch in both of her nostrils, and continued upward, just missing the eyes, and ended near her hairline. The third one was a bit longer, starting at the right corner of her mouth, and traveled upward over cheek and eye, and then ended at the same latitude as the other two scars. All three red lines were thickest on her cheekbones, and her eyebrows suffered at the respective spots.

“I was right; ya look as beautiful as ever.” Gin smiled flirtatiously

“No, I don’t,” Rangiku immediately contradicted.

“I’m yer captain an’ yer husband, an’ I say yer still the most beautiful woman who ever lived.”

“Gin, that’s very sweet, but- mmph!”

Actions spoke louder than words, and Gin decided to put that into practice by cutting her off with a kiss right on the mouth. Her resistance disappeared instantly, and she accepted his physical declaration that said, “You are beautiful.” Compared to other kisses they had shared, this one was rather chaste, but it was what she needed now.

Reluctantly, they separated again, and she whispered, “A good argument, but I’m not completely convinced.”

“We’ll fight ‘bout yer loveliness later,” he murmured back to her softly. “Right now, we need to go to Orihime-chan’s place an’ talk to Yama-jii.”

Instantly, Rangiku was alert and protesting. “I can’t go out looking like this!”

“If ya don’t, I’ll tell everyone yer a scaredy-cat.”

“…fine, but I won’t like it!”

So a short while later, Gin and Rangiku entered Orihime’s apartment, where the Karakura strike team had set up a telecommunications center. Upon realizing that Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Rukia were already here, Rangiku hesitated. But she steeled herself, and followed her husband into the meeting room.

The three other members of the team turned and looked at the couple, their gazes lingering on her face in an uncomfortable stare.

Rukia recovered first by standing at attention for Gin and reporting, “Renji has gone to bring Ichigo here. It shouldn’t be too long.”

“’Kay,” the captain acknowledged her words.

Ikkaku gave an indifferent shrug and averted his gaze, but Yumichika did not. He kept up his examination of Rangiku’s new look, tilting his head to one side as he did so. He raised a hand to his chin and cupped it thoughtfully. Then he smiled.

“I’m glad, Rangiku-san,” the narcissist said at last. “I was afraid that hideous creature might have marred your beauty, but it seems that the scars he inflicted on you only seem to bring out your perfection better. The nose _almost_ ruined the image, but you are gifted; damage to anyone else would have been an ugly appearance, but on you it seems to accentuate your pulchritude instead of detracting from it.”

The Third’s lieutenant blinked in surprise. She knew that Yumichika, Soul Society’s leading authority on beauty, was never afraid to point out the ugly features in other people, so she knew this frank, critical assessment must be completely honest. Still, she had trouble believing that even with her scars, she retained any semblance of physical attractiveness (from the chin up, anyway).

“Told ya,” Gin remarked smugly.

Renji and Ichigo entered the room and did a double-take at Rangiku’s new scars, but before they could react, the television turned on to reveal Ukitake’s serious expression.

* * *

“Gin, you better explain why you didn’t think to offer to rescue Orihime-chan,” Rangiku growled to her husband in a whisper as they marched through the Dangai.

“It’d be too much o’ a ruckus made, fightin’ Kenpachi an’ Kuchiki-taichō,” Gin answered softly. “’Sides, dontcha worry; we’ll get our shot at rescuin’ Orihime-chan.”

“What do you mean? We’ll sneak away later?”

“Won’t need to. Yama-jii ordered Ichigo to stay put, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s no way he’ll obey; you know how he is.”

“’That’s the point; Ichigo will find some way to break into Hueco Mundo, an’ that’s when I’ll volunteer to be part of the rescue team to go in and save _him_ before he gets himself killed.”

“There are several problems with that,” Rangiku pointed out. “First, how will Ichigo get into Hueco Mundo in the first place?”

“Same way he got into Soul Society: Urahara-san.”

“Okay, next problem: what makes you so sure that Yamamoto would organize or even permit a team to rescue Ichigo?”

“’Cause the kid is a nonexpendable military asset,” Gin answered. “Orihime-chan ain’t.”

“But I still don’t get how Yamamoto would think he’s so valuable that he would risk more people to save him.”

“Think ‘bout it, Rangiku; what is the one _real_ advantage he has over anyone in the Gotei 13 in this war?”

Rangiku paused as she mentally listed all of Ichigo’s capabilities and talents. He had Bankai, was strong and fast enough to defeat both Kenpachi and Kuchiki in one-on-one fights, his reiatsu grew at exponential levels, but none of those reasons seemed enough to be deemed such a powerful weapon against Aizen…

“He’s never seen Aizen’s Complete Hypnosis!” she blurted out.

“So, ya can rest assured that sooner or later, Yama-jii is gonna send a rescue team to Hueco Mundo,” Gin concluded.

It was not long after this conversation was finished that the Karakura response team and their escort exited the Dangai and stepped into the grounds of the Seireitei once again. Waiting for them were four figures, and after Rangiku’s eyes had adapted to the sudden light, she recognized them as Hinamori, Yachiru, Kira, and Hisagi. The three older ones were standing side by side, and the pink-haired girl was perched on top of Hinamori’s shoulders.

Rangiku flinched upon seeing her friends, and her previously allayed insecurities raised their ugly heads again. She knew they would not comment on her new look, but that made it worse; she was not sure if she could stand the uncomfortable silence or pitying looks.

“Wow, Aunty, you got scars just like Ken-chan!” Yachiru pointed out in excitement, and the other lieutenants gaped at her in mortification. “Now you look pretty _and_ strong!”

Everyone else who did not wear a haori sweatdropped at her statement. Kenpachi and Kuchiki Byakuya, who both had kept silent during the trip through the Dangai, continued to ignore the antics of their subordinates. Gin sniggered.

“You know, she’s right, Rangiku-san,” Hinamori spoke up first with some hesitation. “You still look pretty.”

“And scars are quite fashionable these days,” Hisagi chuckled nervously.

“You look great,” Kira concurred in a rather lame but sincere manner. “And we are very glad that you are still in healthy shape.”

More awkward silence followed, and Kira, Hisagi, and Hinamori all looked at Rangiku nervously. The woman in question twitched in annoyance.

“Okay! Okay!” Rangiku finally burst out in frustration. “I get it! I’m pretty! I’m beautiful! I’m drop-dead gorgeous! And the next person to compliment my looks will end up with their face shoved through a mirror!”

* * *

While Gin was in the meeting, Rangiku decided that she might as well take his suggestion and try to communicate with Haineko again. She sat down cross-legged beneath a tree in the Third Division’s persimmon orchard, and entered her inner world.

The realm in which her zanpakutō resided was an endless forest of evergreens, occasionally conceding space to small clearings. The only other significant landmark was a mountain looming in the distance with a small cloud of smoke emerging from its peak.

Rangiku touched down onto the one of the meadows, and waited for the spirit of her weapon to show herself. It was never a long wait, as Haineko usually loved to initiate verbal matches.

True to form, the zanpakutō stalked from one of the shadows of the trees from behind Rangiku. Most of the time, Haineko succeeded in startling her wielder, but not this time; the lieutenant was intent on not backing down from this meeting in any form.

The spirit of the Ash Cat took the form of, naturally, a large gray cat. Actually, “large” was a bit of an understatement. If she went by size alone, Rangiku would have assumed she was looking at a small tiger, but the shape and build were definitely that of a domesticated cat. Most of her fur was a light gray, except for some darker stripes along her sides and back, another reason to mistake the lazy feline for the largest carnivore in this part of the world. The cat queen looked at the lieutenant with deep forest-green eyes filled with jeering and utter lack of respect.

“Back so soon?” Haineko crooned. “After your temper tantrum yesterday, I didn’t expect you to return for at least a week.”

Rangiku did not rise to the bait this time. Instead, she simply said, “We have problems.”

The cat narrowed her eyes into a glare that would make any feline proud, the intensity of her look very much relaying her response.

“Don’t look at me in that tone of voice,” the lieutenant growled, urging herself to keep her temper under control. “Why are you so against helping me attain Bankai?”

“You misunderstand, you stupid old hag,” Haineko replied, and paused to drink in the irritated expression on her wielder’s face. “I _do_ want you to attain the second release. But I also want to make sure you have _earned_ that right.”

“Well, then go ahead!” Rangiku pressed. “I’ll leave right now and bring you out with me, and I’ll beat the stuffing out of you!”

“If that was all that was required, we would have had Bankai _years_ ago,” the feline zanpakutō sniffed disdainfully. “Before you can do that, you need to recognize who you are; who _we_ are.”

“Then enlighten me,” the wielder replied with more than a little impatience.

“I cannot simply _tell_ you,” Haineko said, and then as an afterthought, she added, “It’s more fun to let you figure it out for yourself.”

“Fun? We are in the middle of a war! Orihime-chan’s been kidnapped! We don’t have time for fun!”

“Yes, you do,” the cat said with what sounded like honest puzzlement in her voice. “Gin’s training.”

Rangiku blinked, and then yelled incredulously, “ _That’s_ your idea of fun?!”

“Of course. He forces us to be stronger and faster; is that not the point of ‘play,’ to prepare us for reality?”

“That’s training, and it’s not something most people consider enjoyable. Especially the way Gin does it.”

“Oh, but I simply _adore_ his challenges!” Haineko purred. “They’re so _thrilling!_ ”

“I would’ve thought that you, being a cat and a hunter, would despise being the hunted,” Rangiku frowned.

“If it were anyone else pursuing us, yes, I would,” the gray predator agreed. “But I think you and I can both agree that neither of us truly mind being hunted by a certain fox.”

The beautiful woman coughed uncomfortably and said, “That is _completely_ different.”

“How so? There’s the thrill of the hunt which sends the blood burning, the pursuit which excites the senses, and it all leads up to that exquisite climax-!”

“Okay, I get it!” Rangiku cut the cat off, annoyed at how red her face was. Especially since she was the one who usually teased the younger girls about such things, her normal targets being Nanao and Hinamori, but few of the younger women were safe from such embarrassing topics.

On that note, it was both depressing and heartwarming to realize that she was one of the oldest women currently in the Gotei 13. Unohana and Soifon were definitely her elders, and Rangiku was fairly certain she had seniority over Isane or Nemu, in personality if not actual age. Despite having the body of a young healthy woman, the fact of the matter was that compared to most of her coworkers, she was a rather matronly lady, and it made her feel older than she would like. But on the other hand, it was rather nice to know that so many people looked up to her and sought her advice. While Unohana would always be the mother figure to the Gotei 13, Rangiku had become a sort of elder sister. When a shinigami wanted wisdom and reassurance, they asked Unohana. But when they wanted a drinking buddy or dating advice, Rangiku was the one they sought. She was not sure when she had grown into the role, but it was one she accepted happily.

But she was digressing. Back to the present, Rangiku asked her zanpakutō, “So, what you’re saying is that all I need is to treat training like fun?”

“Of course not,” Haineko sniffed with typical housecat arrogance. “While I would heavily advise it that is not our main point of conflict.”

“Then what is it?!”

“Let me ask you this: why do we argue so much? Why is it we can never get along?” the tigress inquired.

“Because you’re a lazy, uncooperative, unhelpful flea bag?”

“Not any more than you’re a stupid old hag,” Haineko riposted with a sneer.

“You forgot ‘ugly.’” Rangiku jeered.

“It’s not the scars that make you hideous, Rangiku,” the zanpakutō said in a quieter tone.

The golden-haired woman blinked at the shockingly gentle tone, backhanded as it was.

Taking advantage of the surprised silence, Haineko continued, “Now concentrate on my first question, if you can.”

With the motivation to prove the cat wrong, Rangiku contemplated her relationship with her zanpakutō. It had always been a difficult one, since Haineko seemed determined to make Rangiku fight for every inch of strength. It had taken her several years to get her name, and another few months before surrendering her Shikai.

Haineko was lazy, vain, and self-centered: your standard-issue cat. It had always driven Rangiku bonkers that her zanpakutō never seemed to take their duties seriously, especially since Gin had actually managed to drill a bona fide work ethic into her. She was no workaholic, but no one could accuse her of being a slacker, either.

But for the first time, Rangiku decided to review her zanpakutō as she actually was: a part of herself. While Rangiku had been trained to work without someone holding a whip over her, her innate desire to slack off still made itself known by finding ways to complete the least amount of paperwork as possible. Her vanity was certainly shared in that they both took pride in their beautiful appearance.

It only made sense that Haineko would share similar traits with her, since she was her zanpakutō…

The epiphany slammed into Rangiku with all the speed of her husband’s Bankai.

“You are a part of me,” she whispered out loud. While she had always known this, since Gin had taught her this lesson over and over, it had never truly sunk in until now. Haineko did not _share_ similar traits; they were the _same_ traits. She wanted to smack herself for being so dense for so long.

“About time you realized that,” Haineko goaded. “Perhaps now you’ll want to see if you can actually materialize me. But I doubt it.”

Rangiku glared at the Ash Cat, and exited her inner world. She opened her eyes and immediately leapt to her feet. She concentrated on the being she knew to be living inside her, and _pulled_.

The explosion and small spike in her reiatsu created a small cloud of smoke, which forced Rangiku to shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she saw that standing in front of her was Haineko. She seemed a little larger now, and there were wisps of ash drifting off some places of her fur. But most noticeable was the smirk on the cat’s face as if she had just eaten the proverbial canary.

“Not bad,” the zanpakutō conceded, and then added disparagingly, “Perhaps eventually you’ll be strong enough to keep me out here long enough to fight.”

“You can bet your life on it,” Rangiku grinned ferociously, panting and sweating through the drain of spiritual power.

“Don’t forget to have fun,” Haineko advised before she faded away.

Exhausted from the energy expenditure, a nigh-fanatical grin her husband would be proud of managed to claw its way onto Rangiku’s face. _Finally_ , there was progress.

* * *

“… and last order of business,” Yamamoto concluded. “Soifon-taichō, order your best spies to keep an observation detail on Karakura Town while it is in Soul Society.”

“Of course, sir,” she acknowledged.

“Before you are dismissed, are there any other matters that should be brought to my attention?” the general asked.

“I got one,” Gin called out, raising his hand as if he were in a classroom. “I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout what happened with Orihime-chan, an’ I just wanna say that I don’t think she would’ve joined Aizen unless she were forced to.”

“You are so certain about your evaluation of Inoue Orihime?” Yamamoto asked dangerously.

“Yep.”

“So if you are so adept at discerning a person’s loyalty, Ichimaru-taichō, then why did you not predict Aizen’s betrayal?”

Some of the other captains grimaced at that statement. Yamamoto had a point; Aizen had seemed to be the role model for shinigami for decades, and his true nature had been a shock to them all. In comparison, they had only known Inoue Orihime a few months, and the first encounter with her was as a helper to an invader of Soul Society. Little wonder that Yamamoto was not hesitant in his judgment of the girl’s status.

The captain of the Third could definitely tell where the old man was coming from, but he did not let that faze him.

“I always knew there was somethin’ off ‘bout him, but I didn’t think much ‘bout it,” he admitted, “I figured since we let Kurotsuchi become captain, Aizen couldn’t be hidin’ anythin’ _that_ bad.”

The captain in question just rolled his eyes and ignored the insult.

“Are you still so certain that Inoue Orihime did not go of her free will?” Yamamoto asked.

“Yep,” Gin answered without any hesitation.

“I believe I must also concur with Ichimaru-taichō’s assessment of the girl,” Unohana joined in. “Although it is true I only met her briefly, I was left with the impression that Inoue-san is a good soul, and very loyal to her friends.”

“Very well; then for argument’s sake, let us assume that Inoue Orihime is a prisoner of Aizen,” Yamamoto allowed, “Do you suggest that we rescue her? We cannot afford to send in a force to storm Hueco Mundo to save the life of one human. Do not forget, Aizen is planning an assault on Soul Society and Karakura, and we need to keep our forces consolidated if we are to survive.”

“Why don’t we just head out and take the fight to them?” Kenpachi asked. “I’m sick of just sitting around and waiting for ‘em to attack us.”

“As much as I hate to agree with Zaraki,” Soifon spoke up, “he does have a point; the best defense is a good offense.”

“Because we do not have the means to open a passage into Hueco Mundo yet,” Yamamoto explained. “Which is another reason why a rescue mission would be fruitless.”

Gin’s smile was still present on his face, but it was empty. It just didn’t sit right with him to leave poor Orihime in the hands of Aizen. He could understand the old man’s reasons, and to put it in cold, analytical terms, it was the best tactical and strategic decision. Lives of the many outweighed the life of the one and all that.

Then Yamamoto’s lieutenant burst into the room, and the captains looked in surprise at this unexpected interruption.

“I apologize,” Sasakibe said, dropping to one knee. “But I have urgent news from the world of the living: Kurosaki Ichigo has departed for Hueco Mundo with his human friends Ishida Uryū and Sado Yasutora. We also know that Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai-fukutaichō have gone missing, presumably to join Kurosaki Ichigo.”

Gin sent a genuine, knowing grin at the captain of the Sixth. It went unacknowledged by its target.

Yamamoto was silent for a moment.

“I need volunteers for a mission to help Kurosaki Ichigo complete his task,” the captain-commander finally said.

Gin smiled in excitement. He had always wanted to see what the world of Hollows looked like.

* * *

“Rangiku! There ya are!”

The woman turned and saw her husband approaching, and despite the ache she felt, she was so excited over her accomplishment that she still managed to summon up the energy to glomp him.

Not expecting such an enthusiastic greeting, Gin very nearly fell over, but managed to gain sure footing just in time. As he returned her powerful embrace, she chanted over and over again, “I did it! I did it! I did it!”

“Calm down there, Rangiku,” he interrupted her. “What happened?”

“I materialized Haineko!” she squealed joyously, and Gin winced slightly, as she was not too far away from his ear when she declared that.

Harmed hearing notwithstanding, he was happy at her achievement. “’Bout time.”

“Hey, some of us aren’t prodigies,” Rangiku snapped back, pushing away from her husband and glaring at him.

“I know,” he reassured her. “I was jus’ teasin’ ya.”

“Not funny,” she scolded him.

“Sorry.”

“So you should be,” she smirked.

“Seriously, good job,” Gin congratulated her. “You’ll get Bankai before you know it.”

“I think I still have a year or two to go,” Rangiku told him.

“Before today, I thought ya still had another five,” he admitted. “I think yer guess is closer now. So, what changed?”

She filled him in on what had occurred during the chat with Haineko.

“So, does this mean we’ll be trainin’ more often?” Gin turned the knob on his smile to Mischievous.

“Yes,” Rangiku rolled her eyes. “I suppose you want to start now?”

“Can’t.”

She blinked. “Why not?”

“Well, I jus’ got back from the meetin’…” he began to explain, and his expression told her, “Yer not gonna to like what I’m ‘bout to say.”

“And?” she prodded impatiently with a suspicious frown.

“I’ve got good news… an’ some bad news, too, but mostly good news,” he answered.

“Spit it out.”

“Well, I was right, an’ Yama-jii called fer a team to go to Hueco Mundo.”

“That’s great!”

“The bad news is that we ain’t on it.”

“Oh. At least people are being sent,” Rangiku shrugged. “Why didn’t we get picked? Didn’t you volunteer?”

“Yeah,” Gin nodded. “But unfortunately, so did Unohana, Kuchiki, Kurotsuchi, an’ Kenpachi. An’ all at the same time.”

“Wow. But why didn’t he let us go, too?”

“Yama-jii wanted to cap the limit o’ captains in Hueco Mundo at four, an’ I was the fifth guy to step forward.”

“Okay, but I still don’t understand why you think I won’t like the news.”

“Did I say that?” Gin asked innocently.

“Your face did,” Rangiku deadpanned.

“Ya got me,” he admitted. “Yama-jii’s got a plan…”

* * *

As Hinamori approached the crowd of shinigami gathered by the Senkaimon, she could tell that there was tension in the atmosphere. She had been briefed on the general plan: all captains would enter the world of the living to defend the decoy Karakura Town, and then Urahara would open a Garganta and allow four captains to enter Hueco Mundo to retrieve Kurosaki Ichigo.

The pre-battle jitters were felt by all the fighters, though some managed to conceal it better than others.

Hinamori knew she should be with Rangiku, but she wanted to say a few words to someone before doing so.

“Hisagi-san!” she called as she walked up to him.

“What is it, Hinamori-kun?” he replied.

“I just want to say ‘good luck’,” she said. “I hope that Tōsen listens to you and Komamura-taichō.”

Hisagi gave a wan smile. “Thank you. I hope that Hitsugaya listens to you.”

“So do I.”

Then they heard the captain-commander order, “Move out!”

Upon this declaration, the Senkaimon opened, and the best of the Gotei 13 stepped through.

* * *

The first thing Rangiku noticed when she entered the mortal world once more was that she actually could notice a difference in the town beneath her. She knew that the Twelfth had worked very hard to create a replica, but for all their effort, the copy still lacked the vitality and noise of the living Karakura Town.

She glanced to the side to make sure Hinamori was still with her. Aside from the four shinigami who had been assigned to guard the pillars keeping the fake Karakura Town in the living world, everyone had been ordered to always stay in groups of at least two.

“Stay close, Hinamori,” Rangiku called to her friend.

“Okay,” the willowy girl nodded, and then looked around curiously. “Where’s Ichimaru-taichō?”

The older woman was about to answer the question when she detected the unmistakable sound of a Garganta being formed. From somewhere not too far away, she heard Kyōraku remark, “Here they come.”

The battle had begun.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** I’ve got a question: when was the last time we saw a konsō performed?

Yes, I did have Haineko look different here than she did in the Zanpakutō Arc because it has been all but established that most zanpakutō spirits change appearances after they were summoned into the real world by Muramasa. The most glaring example is Renji’s Zabimaru, but another one is Hyōrinmaru.

Yamamoto’s command to Soifon to keep spies in the real Karakura Town is a reference to one of my one-shots, “Witness.”

Thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter: **Juliedoo** , **TykkiMikk** , **The Lord of War** , **Nnix Ame** , **TakaSasuke** , **xXxLKxXx** , and anonymous guests.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Ichimaru-taichō.”

Gin turned around to see Sasakibe approaching him with a sack in hand.

“Whatcha need?” the captain inquired.

“I heard that your birthday is coming soon,” the lieutenant said. “I happened to come across this disk while I was visiting the world of the living, and I finally managed to get the Twelfth Division to convert it into spiritual particles. It’s a human comedy, and I do believe you’ll enjoy it.”

“Thanks,” Gin replied gratefully as he took the case containing the disk in his hand.

“Now if you’ll please excuse me,” Sasakibe bowed. “I must return to my duties.”

“Go ‘head,” the silver fox nodded.

After the elder man had left, Gin took a look at the label on his gift: “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** The omake was just a little explanation to show how Gin made that Monty Python reference a few chapters back.

You know, I remember how meticulously I planned out this fic, how I re-watched the “Bleach” anime in order to see what points of the story would remain the same and what points would diverge because of changes to this timeline. I recall skipping the Hueco Mundo arc because it did not feature Gin much at all, and so I passed it over that time.

It wasn’t until much later, well after I had published the story, that something rather significant did happen in the Hueco Mundo arc because of Gin: Rukia running into Aaroniero. Gin was manipulating the walls of Las Noches in order to confuse the intruders, and deliberately set it so that Rukia would encounter the 9th Espada. In a timeline where Toshiro joins Aizen instead of Gin, I don’t see Toshiro pulling the same kind of stunt here, partially because he’s not a sadist like Gin, and partially because he has no interest in Rukia like Gin did. Theoretically, Gin’s absence from Hueco Mundo should have avoided Rukia’s confrontation with Aaroniero. But since that battle made her the only non-captain-class character to take down an Espada, making it one of her most awesome moments, I will declare that it still happened like in canon, and I’ll have to handwave it as it happening because Aaroniero seeking her out because he recognized her from Kaien’s memories or something.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to Noiram ARDA for the comment.


	12. Ash, Fire, and Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ikkaku goes all out, Rangiku gets ruthless, Hinamori shows off, and Halibel is no easy foe.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 11/26/2013**

* * *

Just a heads-up: Rangiku will be applying her zanpakutō’s power in a rather nasty way in this battle.

* * *

“You are holding back,” Poww accused his enemy. “You cannot defeat me as you are, so you might as well show me what power you are hiding.”

Out of habit and stubborn contrariness, Ikkaku almost denied the large Arrancar’s words. But then he remembered Sasakibe, and how he had remained a lieutenant for centuries despite his possession of a second release. And so the shaven warrior concluded that at long last, he could fight without holding back at all. This was going to be _fun_.

“Well, if you want to see it so badly,” the Third Seat replied, and his grin spread into maniacal levels as he shouted, “BANKAI!”

Despite the explosion of spiritual energy occurring, Poww stood unflinching at the second release.

“Ryūmon Hōzukimaru!”

Rejuvenated by the exponential increase of reiatsu, Ikkaku stood confident, despite the bruises that still lay scattered across his skin. However, unlike the last time he unleashed Bankai, his weapon was broken; the chains which connected the three blades were still severed from his final clash with Edrad, the central axe blade was cracked on one side. It seemed like a single hit could separate the guan dao from its handle. The only part of Ryūmon Hōzukimaru which seemed intact was the monk’s spade. Despite the battered condition of his weapon, Ikkaku stood firm, his posture begging the behemoth to continue the fight.

“Is that it?” Poww asked, clearly unimpressed.

“That’s it,” Ikkaku grinned. “My Bankai.”

“I’m disappointed,” the Arrancar said. “I had expected this secret of yours to be more potent.”

“It’ll be enough to kill you,” the battle-hungry bruiser boasted.

With that declaration, he leapt into the air and thrust his monk’s spade forward. Poww calmly raised his fist to block the blade, but to his surprise, the Bankai cut into his hand between his two middle knuckles. His hierro prevented it from splitting his hand in two, but the damage was done nevertheless.

Poww quickly pulled his arm back before Ikkaku could deepen the cut, and examined his injury.

“So, you can finally cut through my hierro,” the cetacean Arrancar noted calmly as he looked at the gushing wound on his fist. “Not bad.”

“I’m just getting started,” Ikkaku cackled, and charged forward once again with his oversized blades. Poww attempted to block each strike with his arms, as he had before the shinigami had gone Bankai, but to no avail; his skin no longer afforded him protection against the shinigami’s sword, and his reliance on bulk and durability meant he could not dodge the assault.

With a great deal of effort, Poww jumped back long enough to give himself a breather. Ikkaku sensed that the fight was about to taken to the next level, and so honored the unwritten rules of a one-on-one fight and let him.

“Congratulations, Madarame Ikkaku,” the Fraccion said. “I will employ my Resurreccion to defeat you.”

From his sleeve, Poww pulled out a katana still sheathed in his scabbard; it seemed ludicrously Lilliputian in his Brobdingnagian hands. He drew the blade out and declared, “Breathe, Calderon.”

Ikkaku’s eyes bulged as he witnessed his enemy rapidly growing to a ridiculous size. When Poww had finally finished expanding his size, he looked like he could actually look down on Sōkyoku Hill.

The shaven fighter recovered with a grin and shouted loud enough for the kaiju to hear him, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”

Once again, Ikkaku launched into the air and thrust his oversized blade forward. His blow managed to connect somewhere on the behemoth’s belly, and to his satisfaction, red stained his massive Bankai once again. He could still make the Arrancar bleed.

“How bothersome,” a deep rumble more felt than heard reached Ikkaku’s ears, and he looked up in panic to realize that proportionally, he had done about as much damage as a splinter. While Ryūmon Hōzukimaru still allowed him to slice through the titan’s skin, the size difference between the two meant that even the deepest gash he could inflict was nothing more than a paper cut to Poww. But it would only take one hit from the monster to kill the Third Seat. Maybe if he started cutting at the Arrancar’s ankles, and then worked his way up…

Ikkaku’s thoughts were cut short as one of Poww’s fists swung far too close for comfort. The punch missed the Third Seat by a narrow margin, but the wind picked up by the kaiju’s blow still forced Ikkaku off his feet and sent him flying through the air, and a solid impact informed him that he had crashed into the pavement.

“If every Bankai is as weak as yours,” Ikkaku heard Poww taunt, “then they will all be easily crushed under my feet.”

He looked up and saw the gargantuan fist descending towards his broken body. But before the determined fighter could react, Komamura appeared in front of him and intercepted the blow. The fist was larger than the captain’s entire body, yet he still stood his ground against the giant’s punch.

As Ikkaku stared at Komamura’s act of herculean strength, he felt himself grabbed by the back of his shihakusho. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Iba dragging him away from the two combatants.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Ikkaku protested. “I haven’t won my fight yet!”

“You protected the pillar long enough for us to arrive and take your place,” Iba told the Third Seat. “You can count that as a win.”

“Oh, come on! I was just warming up! I could’ve beaten him!”

“If the amount of damage you inflicted on him is any indicator, then it would’ve taken several weeks, and our schedule says the battle must be won today.”

Ikkaku finally twisted himself out of Iba’s grip and faced him. “And you think you guys can beat that overgrown fatso by yourselves?”

“Not me,” the Seventh’s lieutenant responded calmly, and pointed towards the battle in question. “Komamura-taichō.”

The second strongest man in the Eleventh glanced over and did a double take at the sight of Kojukō Tengen Myō-ō standing at eye level with the colossal Arrancar. It did not take even five minutes for the canine captain to dispose of the uppity giant.

“Komamura-taichō’s Bankai is leagues beyond yours,” Iba said.

“Okay, yeah fine, the battle finished faster that way,” Ikkaku admitted with a grumble. “But for the record, I could have still beaten him… it just would’ve taken a little longer.”

“Duly noted,” the other man smiled wryly.

* * *

Rangiku and Hinamori stood side by side, their hands at their zanpakutō’s handles, as they faced the three female Fraccion, each one glaring at the two lieutenants with varying levels of open hostility.

The elder woman shifted her eyes so she could see the Espada standing some distance away. She appeared to be content to observe the fight, but that did not mean she would not intervene if the tide of the battle turned against her underlings.

“Hinamori,” Rangiku murmured to her friend. “I’ll need to you to keep your distance for now.”

“What do you mean?” the brunette asked.

“I can take care of these three by myself,” the Third’s lieutenant explained. “But I need you to watch my back, in case the Espada over there decides to take advantage of an opening.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Hinamori asked.

Rangiku nodded. “I just don’t want to hit you accidentally; I told you about Haineko’s abilities, didn’t I?”

The Fifth’s ranking officer stilled for the briefest moment, but quickly recovered and nodded in agreement at the other woman’s words.

“Hey, are you two done whispering?” the heterochromatic Arrancar girl shouted.

Without bothering with a response, Hinamori disappeared in a buzz of shunpo. The two more active of the Fraccion snapped their heads around to discern the location of their missing opponent.

“There you are!” the woman yelled again as she caught sight of Hinamori standing far off. She was about to launch herself forward when she heard the shinigami who had remained behind declare, “Growl, Haineko!”

The three Fraccion turned their heads towards their more immediate opponent just in time to see a cloud of ash enclose upon them.

“She’s mocking us,” Rangiku heard a muffled growl from inside the cloud. “This sand can’t hurt us any!”

An invitation if she ever heard one. The lieutenant gave a swing of her hilt, and there were two cries of surprise. Odds were that the cloud had scratched all three of them, but that one girl seemed too reticent to vocalize her pain over a few cuts. Well, those cuts were going to be the least of their worries within the next few minutes.

Rangiku flicked her left wrist once, and the cloud of ash spun itself into a tornado. The small particles of her blades accelerated to speeds exceeding a hundred kilometers an hour, which allowed the millions of tiny shards to easily slice through the Arrancars’ hierro. This was proven by the louder and more definitive exclamations of pain coming from two of her opponents.

A rise of reiatsu and the changing color of her cyclone alerted Rangiku to three Ceros being formed by her adversaries. The lieutenant leapt out of the way in time to avoid the tricolor attack, and landed on a nearby roof. Just as she stood up, she saw that the Ceros had also managed to dissipate the cloud, and given the Fraccion an opportunity to escape.

Now, the three women were standing in the air above and around her, in a triangular position surrounding her. They were not unscathed by the attacks of the ash tornado; they all sported torn clothes and abrasions over their bodies which stood testimony that Haineko’s claws had indeed reached them.

“Did you really think that would kill us?” the Amazonian warrior asked arrogantly.

“Any last words?” the horned woman jeered with a haughty smirk.

Despite being surrounded three to one, Rangiku was unperturbed.

“You are all already dead,” she informed them somberly.

“What kind of big talk is that?” the deer-like Arrancar demanded, her smirk instantly gone.

“My zanpakutō, Haineko, dissolves into a cloud of ash once she’s released,” Rangiku explained. “Do you truly understand that statement?”

“Yeah, you got a fluffy cloud as your weapon,” the leonine woman sneered. “We are completely terrified.”

The lieutenant ignored the taunt and continued, “An ash cloud is normally produced by a volcano upon eruption, and is made of small particles of exploded rock too small to be seen.”

“You claim that your zanpakutō has the power of a volcano?” The green-haired Fraccion asked skeptically. “How arrogant.”

“In a way, I suppose you could say that’s true,” Rangiku gave a brief, mirthless smirk. “Obviously, my cloud of ash is made of metal instead of rock, but you don’t really seem to grasp the significance yet: the cloud of ash, which is under _my_ control, surrounded the three of you for several seconds. Each individual particle of my sword is too tiny to be seen, so you obviously didn’t realize that while I was attacking you, you were also _inhaling my zanpakutō_.”

The three Fraccion froze in terror.

“No way!” the odd-eyed woman shouted in panic as she held a hand to her chest. “You’re bluffing! If that’s true, then why didn’t you kill us before?!”

“If you had not hesitated to attack while surrounding me, I would have,” Rangiku replied. “But since you were nice enough to let me have ‘last words,’ I thought it only decent to let you know what killed you.”

She flicked her wrist, and with the same command that had summoned the ash tornado, she ordered the small pockets of tiny blades stored in the lungs of her three opponents to move into action.

* * *

From her position some distance away, Hinamori went green at the sight of three ash clouds shredding the Hollows’ chests from the inside out. While she was combat experienced, she was not battle hardened to the point where she could dismiss such bloody sights out of hand.

Firmly commanding her stomach to quarantine its contents, Hinamori forced her eyes away from the macabre scene to check on how the Espada was doing.

In one glance, the sight of three Arrancar girls being eviscerated seemed a more comforting scene by comparison.

The Espada was unnaturally still, her eyes wide as she witnessed the deaths of her subordinates. Even from this distance, Hinamori recognized the pain in the enemy woman’s expression; it was the pain she herself had felt when she saw Aizen’s body impaled on the wall in the Seireitei. Even though these enemies were Arrancar, evolved Hollows, it seemed this woman genuinely cared about her Fraccion. And Rangiku had just killed all three of them in a cold and _brutal_ manner. The Espada was no longer considering this as an impersonal battle; it was now a vendetta.

Rangiku was in deep trouble.

* * *

Unlike her husband, Rangiku was not unaffected by the battlefield’s gore. She managed to school her expression, but she still felt nauseated by the fruit of her actions. She was thankful that the three corpses dissolved into spiritual particles soon after they died, so she would not be forced to see their bloodied, hollowed out chests any longer than she had to. This was why using Haineko to attack from inside the enemy’s body was never her favorite tactic, but she had trained with Gin enough to realize that it was the most efficient option available. The less amount of energy expended on the lower ranks like Fraccion, the more energy she had to spare on the Espada and the traitor captains.

Speaking of which…

Rangiku looked over her shoulder to check on the Espada’s position. The woman was still standing there, although now there were waves of rage radiating off her body. Then she disappeared.

With a slight pop, the Espada appeared in front of her. Rangiku brought her ash cloud around herself in preparation for the next attack.

“You shinigami are stronger than I thought you would be,” the Espada told her opponent, that calm voice contrasted with the stormy seas within her eyes. “You killed my Fraccion in one move.”

“There’s this lesson we teach at the Third Division,” Rangiku replied. “War is ugly and horrific, and so we should seek to end it as soon as possible.”

“Indeed,” the Espada agreed, and raised her right hand. She extended her index finger and hooked it through a ring on the hilt of her sword. “It seems I will need my blade to end this fight quickly.”

With that declaration, the blonde Arrancar drew her sword and pointed it at Rangiku.

The Third Division’s lieutenant readied her ash cloud, and subtly moved her eyes around to discern Hinamori’s whereabouts.

“Your comrade is gone,” the Espada said, taking note of Rangiku’s glances. “She fled when she saw that I was approaching.”

Rangiku narrowed her eyes at her opponent. She knew that Hinamori had not really abandoned her, but if the Arrancar assumed that she was only facing one opponent, then Rangiku did not see any reason to disillusion her. Besides, there was a more appropriate response to Halibel’s words.

A swing of her hilt, and Haineko pounced upon the Espada.

The cloud surrounded the blonde woman, and repeated the assault that had been laid on the Fraccion just minutes before.

And just like before, the ash cloud was blown away, this time by a single golden Cero.

Rangiku grimaced at the sight before her. While the Espada’s clothes had been shredded in places, and the skin lying underneath was a lighter shade from the scourging, but it remained unbroken. But what was even more unfortunate was that now that jacket had been torn away, she could see that the lower half of the woman’s face was shielded by the remnants of her Hollow Mask.

“Well, that’s not fair,” the lieutenant remarked calmly. With the bony structure protecting her nose and mouth, Rangiku did not have a way to get an easy victory like she had with the three Fraccion.

“I suppose it is only courteous that I tell you my name,” the Espada said. “I am Tier Halibel, the Tres Espada. What is your name, you who slew my Fraccion?”

“Ichimaru Rangiku, the lieutenant of the Third Division,” she replied.

“Prepare yourself, Ichimaru-fukutaichō.”

With her warning declared, the empty space within the Espada’s blade glowed gold with reiatsu. Rangiku immediately called Haineko to act as a shield against whatever Halibel’s next move would be, and just in time; the instant after the ash cloud had come to her side, the Espada appeared in front of her with her blade ready to slash.

With only a millisecond to react, Rangiku flash-stepped away from the impending attack. She reappeared several meters away to Halibel’s left, and Rangiku continued to fly backwards to gain some distance between her and the stronger opponent.

The shark-woman immediately turned towards the lieutenant’s position and rocketed towards her target sword first.

Rangiku swung her hilt, and sent Haineko at the approaching Espada. Her view of her enemy was briefly obscured as the cloud enveloped Halibel, but a yellow vertical line signaled that the enemy woman had slashed her sword down the middle of the cloud, giving her a clear shot at the lieutenant once more.

In that moment when the Espada’s blade was down, Rangiku pounced. She reversed her momentum, and flew directly at her opponent. Sea-green eyes widened at the sight of her target changing directions so suddenly, which gave Rangiku her opening. A call to Haineko summoned a small puff of ash to her hand, and just as she reached the Espada, she shoved that small cloud into her enemy’s face. While Halibel’s nose and mouth were protected by the mask, her eyes were not.

The Espada released a hiss of pain as the tiny particles of metal assaulted her eyes, and she squeezed her eyelids shut. But like getting sand caught in one’s eyes, the ash was not so easily evicted.

Rangiku was about to exploit her opening when Halibel’s left arm snapped out and grabbed her right wrist in an adamantine grip. She let out her own pained hiss as the other woman’s grip tightened and instinctively twisted her arm so that it pushed against Halibel’s thumb, the weakest part of the hand. In most cases, the strength of the arm was enough to push back the thumb and to allow the captive freedom.

Not so here; since Halibel was fighting blind now, she was determined to keep her grip on her enemy. Not wasting her opportunity, she twisted her right wrist so that her blade now faced upwards, and swung it up at her captive.

“Rikujōkōrō!”

Six beams of light slammed into the Espada’s waist, preventing her from gutting Rangiku, and both combatants searched for the caster, one by sight, the other by Pesquisa.

Coming in from Rangiku’s right side, Hinamori charged with Tobiume already released and raised high.

Still blind, the Arrancar managed to react nevertheless. Since her reiatsu levels were so much higher than the brunette’s Halibel was able to overcome the paralysis induced by the Rikujōkōrō enough to point her sword at the incoming girl, and declared, “Ola Azul.”

The zanpakutō glowed yellow, and fired off a bullet of reiatsu not dissimilar to a Bala. Hinamori just managed to sidestep the attack, but her momentum had been lost. Before the aquatic fighter could form another attack, Rangiku grabbed the Espada’s right hand and pulled upwards. Taken off guard, Halibel was no longer able to counter the new girl’s charge.

Hinamori finally appeared beside the two combatants, and prepared to bring her zanpakutō down on the Arrancar’s left arm, in order to free her friend from the enemy’s grip.

Some instinct served to warn the Espada of her peril. To prevent amputation, Halibel quickly released Rangiku’s wrist and blindly slammed her forearm into Hinamori’s solar plexus. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of her and sent her flying backwards several meters.

The instant she felt her sword hand free, Rangiku brought up her legs and planted a kick into her adversary’s gut, using the momentum to fly away from the Espada.

Righting herself after stopping at a safe distance from her opponent, Rangiku grimaced as she tried to use Haineko’s hilt; the Espada’s grip had sprained her right wrist badly. She took the zanpakutō into her left hand and gave it a couple of experimental swings. They were not as refined or controlled as when she used her right hand, but it would have to do for now.

She looked over at Hinamori’s position to see her regaining her footing. A glance at the Espada showed that she had just finished breaking the bakudō restraining her, and so was ready to enter the fight once more.

Halibel glanced in the direction of the new arrival, and Rangiku feared that she would go after the weaker girl first. But then the Espada’s gaze returned to her first target, and Rangiku knew that the Arrancar woman still wished vengeance for the death of her Fraccion.

Rangiku brought her hilt up in preparation for the inevitable attack. Just as expected, Halibel pushed off and sped towards her prey.

And then she just stopped.

Rangiku blinked in surprise at her opponent’s sudden lack of movement. A moment later, red wires appeared around the Espada, revealing that they had snared her within their web.

Before either woman could react, Hinamori flash-stepped next to Rangiku, and swept out Tobiume to one side. The pronged blade struck something solid, a moment later shown to be a red wire attached to the brunette’s arm badge. The wire ignited, and it continued to burn up the rest of the web which Halibel was trapped in.

Rangiku only had a moment to admire Hinamori’s handiwork before the latter pulled her down and instructed, “Brace yourself!”

An instant later, a massive explosion erupted behind them, and nearly knocked them off their spiritually solidified air platforms, and rendered Rangiku nearly deaf.

After the initial shockwave had passed, Hinamori once again pulled at Rangiku’s arm, and spoke quickly, “Okay there’s no way this killed her so we need to get some distance because you _know_ she’s going to use smoke as cover for when she comes to attack us…”

“Slow down!” Rangiku interrupted, but followed the instruction to ensure there was plenty of empty room between themselves and the smoke cloud. “You’re talking too fast!”

Hinamori inhaled and exhaled between steps.

“So what did you do?” Rangiku asked.

“While you were fighting, I built a kidō net and set it to explode when the Espada was inside it,” the spell mistress explained at a slightly slower speed.

“How’d you know where we’d end up?”

“Erm…”

Rangiku stopped in her running, and since Hinamori was still gripping her arm, she also stopped jerkily in her tracks.

“You set up a trap and didn’t know if we’d go through it?” Rangiku asked in disbelief.

“Well, at first, I had planned on showing up and luring her into the net,” Hinamori said defensively. “But then she was about to kill you, so I had to stop working and save you-!”

“Wait, you mean that explosion was caused by an _incomplete kidō net_?”

“Of course! If I had finished, it would have been more powerful and included some other explosions following the first one.”

The older lieutenant stared at Hinamori for a moment before she commented, “Well, I guess you _did_ do a lot of training while Gin and I were gone.”

Before Hinamori could reply, they both felt reiatsu levels rise at their backs. The two lieutenants returned to battle-ready stances and faced the direction of their enemy.

An instant later, Halibel shot out of the cloud, smoking all over and singed in several places, but still in perfectly good condition to fight.

Hinamori raised her hand at the rapidly approaching Espada and declared, “Shakkahō!”

Without losing her momentum, Halibel twisted around and avoided the crimson fireball. She rapidly closed the remaining distance to the spellcaster and swung her sword in an attempt to bisect both women. Hinamori reflexively twisted Tobiume into a guard position, and just managed to block the powerful strike from connecting.

That’s when Rangiku entered the fray again by sending Haineko at Halibel’s head, who quickly shut her eyes in response. While the ash cloud could not infiltrate the nose and mouth, it still managed to scrape at the exposed skin, but not enough to draw blood. Rangiku felt a small bit of satisfaction at the sight of bright yellow hair drifting away from their owner as if she was shedding.

Halibel retaliated by shoving Hinamori away and aimed her zanpakutō where she felt Rangiku’s reiatsu source, and fired a golden energy attack with, “Ola Azul.”

The buxom blonde sped out of the way of the incoming missile. At that same moment, Hinamori recovered from being pushed away, and ignited her zanpakutō with a mental command. She pointed the tip at her enemy, and let the fireball fly. Since the attack was wordless, Halibel’s only warning was a sudden rise of reiatsu from the petite girl. Caught by surprise, the flaming sphere connected directly on her stomach. The hierro on her exposed abdomen sizzled and smoked, but did not seem to do much more damage.

“ _Enough_.”

That single word signaled the eruption of power as the Tres Espada flexed her reiatsu. Haineko was scattered as winds picked up, and Rangiku looked at Hinamori.

“Regroup!” the older lieutenant ordered.

“You will not get away,” Halibel promised, and raised her blade at the woman who had killed her Fraccion.

But before she could release any attack, Hinamori interrupted her by incanting boldly, “Raikōhō!”

A stream of lightning erupted from the kidō mistress’ palm, and Halibel was forced to evade the higher level kidō spell with a step of her sonido. But when she rematerialized, it was to find that both her opponents were absent from the battlefield.

The two shinigami reappeared in a small alley, and paused to catch their breath.

“We need to think of a strategy, and fast,” Rangiku said. “Even blind, she’s tough. I think we can take her, but we need a plan.”

“Rangiku-san, can you do a Rikujōkōrō?” Hinamori asked.

“Yes, but you know she’ll break out of it.”

“I’ll cast one first, and then you reinforce mine with one of yours,” her compatriot explained. “I know it won’t hold her long, but hopefully it’ll be long enough.”

“Long enough for what?”

“I can cast a higher level hadō spell, but I need time to say the full incantation.”

Rangiku almost asked for more details, but realized that there was not enough time; she would just have to trust Hinamori’s judgment.

“Okay, I’ll be ready when you are,” she agreed.

Just then the hostile reiatsu of the Tres Espada landed at the end of the alleyway, her blade pointed at them with the declaration of, “Ola Azul.”

Rangiku snapped her arm around Hinamori’s shoulders and flash-stepped to the top of the building they had been leaning against. Just in time. From their new altitude, the two lieutenants saw that their previous position had been destroyed, leaving behind only a cloud of smoke.

A moment later, Halibel appeared again with a sonic boom, her sword pointed at them in clear evidence of her intent.

“Rikujōkōrō!” Hinamori declared before the enemy could perform her attack, and six beams of golden light slammed into the Espada’s midsection.

Before the Third Espada could free herself, Rangiku followed up with her own casting of, “Rikujōkōrō!”

Another set of glowing rods rammed into Halibel’s waist, reinforcing the first which had been cast. While Rangiku’s kidō skills were nowhere near as refined as Hinamori’s, she did have more raw power on her side, which was enough to support both Rikujōkōrō spells laid upon the Espada.

“Seeping crest of turbidity!” Hinamori began to chant quickly.

Rangiku did not recognize the incantation to this spell, but if it was high enough that Hinamori had to say it, then it truly must be a big one.

“Arrogant vessel of lunacy! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker!”

Sweat was already breaking out on Hinamori’s face and she was panting heavily, but she still managed to force out each word of the incantation. Rangiku was experiencing fatigue as well from keeping Halibel under the Rikujōkōrō spell; the bakudō only kept its prisoner paralyzed if they were exerting less reiatsu than the caster. Since the Espada had captain-class power, even a reinforced spell could not prevent the spiritual shark from grasping one of the glowing beams and attempting to crush it in her hands. The spell remained in place only because of the lieutenants’ joint efforts, but that would not last for long. Now, it was a contest to see who had more reiatsu, and Rangiku was steadily losing ground. She just hoped that she could hold out long enough for Hinamori to pull off whatever hadō she was building up.

“Disrupt sleep! Crawling queen of iron! Eternally self-destructing doll of mud!”

Rangiku blinked as a large outline of a dark box began to build. She knew the shape, but had trouble believing that Hinamori was actually constructing it.

“Unite! Repulse! Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness!”

Hinamori paused and took a deep breath, and at that moment, Halibel made a final push which shattered the Rikujōkōrō into shards, and then the kidō mistress _screamed_ the final part which would complete the entrapment.

“HADŌ NUMBER NINETY: KUROHITSUGI!”

* * *

Hitsugaya _hated_ the heat. He knew it was cliché, for his icy nature to despise the effects of fire, but he couldn’t help it. He could take standing still and being imprisoned during the battle in fake Karakura, but did have to be so _hot_?

His attention was suddenly diverted as he felt the drastic rise of reiatsu familiar to him, and the equally dramatic drop moments later.

“Fascinating,” Aizen commented out loud casually.

“What is it, Aizen-sama?” Tōsen asked.

“Hinamori-kun just cast a level ninety kidō,” Aizen explained. “She passed out immediately afterwards, but that growth is impressive for her. Perhaps we should have taken her with us after all. What do you think, Tōshirō?”

“You know the reason why we did not as well as I,” Hitsugaya replied.

Aizen appeared to give the statement a brief consideration before agreeing, “Indeed.”

Tōsen idly wondered what reason they were referring to, but did not ask out loud. He knew that the topic of Hinamori was a private one between the two men. He bore them no will ill for keeping this from him; after all he did not share his feelings on Hisagi and Komamura with Hitsugaya.

* * *

Rangiku shook her head in frustration as she caught Hinamori in her arms. After that massive expenditure in spiritual power, the petite girl would be unconscious for quite a while.

She took a look at the box which was void of light, and now deconstructing itself.

Rangiku gasped as she saw that Halibel was still standing. She was heavily injured, and there was blood dripping from numerous deep wounds, but the Espada remained still alive, and despite her missing eyes, she was giving them a very stern look.

“No…” Rangiku whispered.

Halibel raised her sword in front of her in a reverse grip with the blade pointed downward, and declared, “Destroy, Tiburon!”

An explosion of reiatsu and water later, the Espada showed her true form.

The bad news was that all of Halibel’s wounds, even her eyes, were now healed, and she was now far stronger than she was before. The good news, to Rangiku, was that her nose and mouth were now uncovered, and so vulnerable to Haineko’s most gruesome attack.

“Do not delude yourself,” the Espada spoke. “I know that you think that since my lower face is now unprotected, you can use your ash cloud to fill my lungs and kill me from the inside. I will not let you have that chance.”

She raised her blade-like right arm, and then water began to form at its tip. Within moments, a puddle became a pool, and that pool grew into a veritable tsunami, ready to drop down on two helpless lieutenants.

With Hinamori in her arms, Rangiku took a leap of shunpo out of range of the wave. Just as she reappeared, she was forced to flash-step again as another deluge was launched by the shark-like Arrancar.

Rangiku could not counterattack while holding Hinamori; if she could have just a moment, she could shift her unconscious friend to her right arm and attempt an attack, but Halibel refused to allow that respite. The aquatic carnivore was hunting them down with typical predatory persistence.

Rangiku managed to dodge several more watery attacks, but she knew she could not keep this up forever.

After a particularly close call, she was forced to stop on one roof to catch her breath.

“Cascada.”

The Espada’s calm declaration made Rangiku look up to see nothing but a dark ocean above her. Halibel had completely cut off any way of escape by sending out enough water to completely surround her prey.

Rangiku lifted her zanpakutō hilt up and yelled, “Bankai!”

Of course, she did not have the second release, and she did not expect to suddenly gain new powers just because she was on the brink of death, but that was not her goal. A shinigami’s reiatsu was a potent weapon, if utilized correctly. Rangiku once saw Gin slice a Gillian’s Cero in half just by focusing his spiritual power in front of him. She did not have his level of skill or strength, but hopefully she had enough to pull off a similar stunt now. Yelling “Bankai” was an admittedly desperate move on her part; while she had only attained materialization the day before, and was still nowhere near gaining the second release, she hoped that it was enough to get at least _a little_ bit of a boost in strength. She would need every ounce she could get.

That thought was validated as the tsunami crashed down on her. Rangiku had tried to shape her reiatsu as a sharp dome, so as to reduce the actual amount of force need to protect herself from the weight of the water. Even with that precaution, she buckled under the strength of the Espada’s attack. Her knees impacted on the concrete roof of the building she stood on, but compared to the strain of holding back millions of tons of water, it was nothing.

After what seemed like an eternity, sunlight fell on her face again, and Rangiku fell forward onto her good hand and gasped desperately for breath. It had taken every bit of strength she had to prevent that tidal wave from killing her and Hinamori, and she was now _exhausted_.

“A valiant effort, but a futile one.”

The Espada was still there, quite ready to bring down another ocean on her. And this time, Rangiku only had just enough strength to lift her head and glare defiantly at her enemy.

Halibel returned the favor with a hostile look of her own, but the cold hatred within her eyes now seemed tempered by reluctant respect. And then the shark released her aquatic fury once more down on the pair of helpless shinigami. Rangiku tried to force herself to stand up and attempt another run, but she knew she would never make it, even if she did not have Hinamori to worry about.

As a cataract of oceanic rage came down to kill them, a familiar white haori appeared in front of her and Hinamori.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Fact: the greatest threat from a volcanic eruption is not the initial blast, but the resulting ash fall. If you don’t believe me, then look up how volcanoes like Vesuvius, Krakatoa, or Toba ended the lives of their victims. That’s why I think that in canon, Haineko is one of the most underutilized zanpakutō. Even if she doesn’t use it to kill from the inside, Haineko is a zanpakutō that works on the same principle as Senbonzakura: Death by a Thousand Cuts.

And yes, I did have Hinamori Take A Level In Badass. And yes, I am thumbing my nose at all the Hinamori haters in Bleach Fandom. Any other questions?

Seriously, I don’t think it’s _too_ incredulous to believe she could pull this off. Hinamori is an established master of kidō, on par with Kira (who has been seen casting spells in the seventies without incantation). We only saw Kurohitsugi twice in the series, both times by Aizen. Based on the first time, when Aizen (someone who is about twice as powerful as the average captain) cast it without incantation, he managed to get it at one-third its intended power and still incapacitate Komamura. From this encounter, I theorized that the power level for a lieutenant (approximately twenty times less powerful than Aizen, assuming an average captain is ten times stronger than the average lieutenant) skilled in kidō could cast it with full incantation, but knock him or herself out in the process because of the raw amount of power required.

I know that officially, it’s Tier _Harribel_ , but according to the Bleach wiki, “Halibel” is an acceptable spelling as well (not to mention far more sensible).

Thanks for the reviews, **TykkiMikk** , **Juliedoo** , **Nnix Ame** , **Von Remington** , Raven’s Shadow, and anonymous guests.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Today, we’ll be talkin’ ‘bout Ikkaku’s Bankai,” Gin greeted as he tapped his pointer in his palm twice.

Images of the Third Seat’s battle with Poww appeared on the viewscreen behind him, and he turned to the side to point at visual aids.

“It’s called Ryūmon Hōzukimaru,” the jovial teacher continued, “an’ as ya can see, it’s still all banged up from his fight with Edrad. That’s ‘cause whenever a Bankai gets broken, it _stays_ broken. An exception to that rule is Komamura, ‘cause his bond with his Bankai is so tight that it’ll heal exactly the same way Komamura will.”

“Gin, what are you doing?” Rangiku asked with a frown as she walked onto the set.

“Jus’ explainin’ to everyone ‘bout Ikkaku’s fight,” he answered.

“I thought I told you no more Arrancar Encyclopedia.”

“It ain’t,” he protested. “I’m in my shinigami uniform, I’m talkin’ ‘bout shinigami, an’ yer right here beside me.”

Rangiku narrowed her eyes skeptically, but finally relented, “Fine. You’ve got my permission.”

“Thanks, Rangiku,” Gin said. “Hitsugaya didn’t wanna do any instructin’, so I had to take matters into my own hands. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** Looking back, I think this Halibel vs. Rangiku & Momo battle is the one I like the best. Having two lieutenants face off with a captain-class opponent, and while they’re on the losing side, they give their enemy a good challenge by using teamwork and smart thinking.

Not to mention that it shows that while Rangiku has been influencing Gin into become more empathic, he has been influencing her into being more ruthless in battle.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mention to Noiram ARDA for the comment.


	13. Enemy of My Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aizen has a knack for ticking people off enough that they ignore grudges against other individuals.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 12/3/2013**

* * *

Rangiku let out a breath she dimly realized she had been holding as the assaulting sea was parted in two, cleaved asunder by the sheer strength of their rescuer’s spiritual power.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves for forcing your captain-commander to the frontlines.”

The tired lieutenant cracked a smile at Yamamoto’s borderline teasing. Figures that it would be on the battlefield that he would show anything approaching a sense of humor.

“Sorry,” she apologized with a small grin.

“Save your apologies, and report to Kira-fukutaichō for treatment,” the ancient dragon ordered.

“Yes, sir,” she replied. The appearance of the most powerful soldier in the Gotei 13 gave Rangiku the second wind she needed to flash-step out of range of the two fighters.

Halibel allowed her target to run for now; she could track her down and kill her after dealing with the shinigami in front of her.

“You are leader of the shinigami, are you not?” she asked her new opponent.

“That is correct,” the old man confirmed.

“So if I defeat you, then your subordinates would despair and fall to their foes,” Halibel continued.

“Defeat me?” he asked with mild scolding in his voice. “Child, you are a thousand years too early to even _think_ of having a chance to defeat me.”

“Your arrogance will lead to your demise,” she cautioned him.

“It seems that I will need to punish you for thinking too highly of your skills,” he warned gruffly in return.

“We’ll see.”

The shinigami general did not look particularly threatening, but Halibel’s experiences with Baraggan had taught her not to judge an opponent’s strength by their age. And then there was the fact that he had parted her Cascada by simply exerting his reiatsu; he was fairly strong for a shinigami.

This battle would _not_ be an easy one, but she was a Vasto Lorde empowered by Aizen, and with the sacrifices of her Fraccion as her guidepost, she would win.

Halibel lifted her blade-arm and charged at her aged enemy. She watched carefully as his cane shed its wooden exterior to reveal a katana in his hand, and prepared herself for whatever attack he would employ against her.

“Ryūjin Jakka: First Stroke.”

* * *

“What a pity,” Yamamoto commented with mild respect as he sheathed his zanpakutō. “Aizen does not deserve such devoted soldiers.”

He paid little further attention to the bifurcated Tres Espada as she fell to the ground. Even as her body dissolved into spiritual particles, the two halves of her face still retained its determined expression, unaware that death had already claimed her.

* * *

Rangiku set down on the ground in front of Komamura.

“How are your injuries?” the large captain asked.

“Surprisingly few,” she answered between heavy breaths.

“Let Kira-fukutaichō take a look at you,” Komamura ordered as he opened a way into the kidō box sheltering the other injured shinigami.

Rangiku nodded as she dragged herself and Hinamori inside. As carefully as she could in her exhausted condition, she set the unconscious girl on the ground. Relieved of her burden, Rangiku used her zanpakutō (she wasn’t sure when Haineko had gone back to her sealed form) to ease herself down to the concrete. Then she lay back and closed her eyes.

“Rangiku-san, where is Hinamori-kun injured?” she heard Kira ask.

“She isn’t,” the strawberry-blonde murmured. “She just spent too much reiatsu on that Kurohitsugi.”

“After what happened the last time, I can’t believe she tried to cast a level ninety spell again,” the Tenth’s lieutenant said, and it sounded like his voice was approaching her now.

“She tried it before?” Rangiku asked. It took a lot more effort to talk than it usually did.

“While you were in the world of the living, Hinamori-kun and I practiced different kidō spells,” Kira explained. “One time when I had left her alone, she tried the Kurohitsugi spell, and passed out just like now.”

“We’ll scold her when she wakes up,” she promised him. “How’s my wrist?”

A pause came as the healer inspected the damage.

“It’ll be fine,” Kira answered, and a warm feeling settled into her wrist as he began a kaidō session. “Though it looks like if that Espada had gripped you any harder, she would have broken some bones.”

“After we scold Hinamori, I’ll make sure to thank her for stepping in just in time,” Rangiku groaned.

“Are you injured anywhere else?”

“I don’t think so. Just tired from blocking that attack.”

“That was pretty impressive. I had heard that you were getting closer to attaining Bankai, but to actually see you in action…”

“It still wasn’t enough. If Yamamoto hadn’t decided to step in when he did, we’d be dead.”

“It was enough,” Kira assured her. “You defeated three Fraccion single-handedly and protected Hinamori-kun long enough for the captain-commander to arrive. You did well out there.”

Rangiku exhaled softly, and gave an exhausted smile. “Thanks.”

* * *

Starrk kept a close eye on his opponent, but he spared a moment to glance towards the vicinity where Halibel had fallen. His eyes shifted towards the giant cloud of smoke where Baraggan once stood. Then he returned his gaze to his pink-clad opponent.

“The guy who killed Halibel,” he said, “that was your boss, wasn’t it?”

“Yep,” the captain confirmed.

“He didn’t even need to release his sword to kill her,” Starrk continued. “He’s that powerful?”

“The strongest one of us,” he stated. “Even if all the other captains teamed up against him, I don’t know which side would win.”

“Among the captains, how are you ranked in strength?”

“We don’t really keep track of that like you guys do,” the captain answered with a mild smile. “We all know that Yama-jii is the most powerful, and that Unohana is second, but from there it’s up for debate.”

“Taichō-san,” Starrk scolded lightly, and then pressed, “You know my strength; give me your honest opinion on yours compared to your comrades.”

For a moment, the Primera thought that his adversary would continue to evade his questions, but the answer finally came, “Third.”

Starrk processed the information. Third might not seem significant against First Espada, but he knew better. Their general’s strength had to be comparable to Aizen’s, to strike down Halibel with such ease. And Aizen had told the Espada one thing about Unohana: Do _not_ engage. Put in that perspective, that meant that a shinigami captain ranked Third might still very well equal or exceed an Arrancar ranked First. And the way the captain answered was not a boast; it was a simple statement of the facts, and the confidence to provide proof of the claim.

The wolf-like Arrancar let out a sigh. Perhaps it was finally time to get serious.

* * *

The moment he saw Tōsen freed from the prison of flames, Komamura knew what he had to do.

“Iba,” he called to his lieutenant.

“Yes, sir?” the man responded.

“Stay here and guard the wounded,” Komamura ordered. “I will deal with Tōsen.”

“So will I.”

The two top officers of the Seventh looked at Hisagi.

“Then come,” was Komamura’s only response.

Rangiku saw Komamura and Hisagi take off, and tried to rise herself, “I should help, too.”

“You can’t, Rangiku-san,” Kira stopped her. “Even after I finish healing your wrist, you don’t have enough reiatsu to threaten a kitten.”

The Third’s lieutenant reluctantly accepted her healer’s prognosis, and settled down once more.

* * *

Starrk studied the four masked newcomers who now faced him. Two men and two women; the dark-haired girl had gone down to greet the shinigami captain he had been fighting against only a minute before, while the other girl looked no older than Lilynette’s humanoid form.

“Are you sure you want to remove your masks?” the Primera asked.

“What makes you think we need ‘em?” the tiny blonde shouted at him aggressively, which created further similarities between her and Lilynette in Starrk’s mind.

“Besides, we can only keep them on for three or four minutes. We’re heroes, after all,” the one with sunglasses explained lightly, after which his voice took on more serious tone. “Now then… let’s begin.”

Starrk felt little choice but to accommodate the masked fighter. He fired off a Cero from his pistol, and his four opponents scattered to avoid the blast. The Primera followed up with further shots, each time at the one closest to him; it ensured that even if he missed his target, it kept his enemies on the move and prevented them from using their superior numbers against him.

* * *

Hitsugaya studied the battles occurring between the two currently alive Espada, and then turned around to face the leader of the Visoreds.

“Oops, got caught,” Hirako said easily, but his smile did not leave his face. “I was hopin’ to sneak up on ya.” He gave a light shrug, and put his zanpakutō up in a standard beginning position, “C’mon, let’s fight head on.”

The young turncoat turned to face the blond Visored, and drew Hyōrinmaru from his sheath.

“Ya know,” Hirako noted. “I don’t think we’ve met before; what’s yer name, kid?”

“Hitsugaya Tōshirō,” he spoke at last. “I already know who you are; Aizen briefed us because he knew that you would be hiding relatively close to where Urahara based himself. Your appearance here is not unexpected.”

“Oh, so the high n’ mighty Aizen remembered us,” Hirako grinned. “I’m flattered.”

With that, he sped forward and delivered his opening strike.

* * *

Starrk paused in his battle after he had downed the masked warriors, and contemplated the demise of the former god of Hueco Mundo.

“Number Two is dead, and no one says anything,” he murmured to himself. “How sad.”

“Indeed.”

The gunslinger blinked and turned around in slight surprise. Aizen was standing there, and his zanpakutō was in his hand.

“What is it, Aizen-sama?” Starrk asked.

The next thing he knew, there was a gash in his chest. Starrk had just gotten over the surprise of his leader betraying him, and was mentally asking the ‘whys’ in his head, when Aizen spoke.

“I’m done with you,” he informed his top Arrancar. “It seems that you are not strong enough to fight for me.”

As Starrk fell to the ground, he could not help but find a cruel irony in the man’s words. The lupine Vasto Lorde was too strong to have friends, yet apparently, he was not strong enough to meet Aizen’s expectations.

* * *

Both shinigami and Visored stared in shocked horror at the results of Hiyori’s impulsive charge at Aizen.

Hitsugaya had flash-stepped in front of the girl with his sword drawn and pointed straight at her. Hiyori saw the movement, but her momentum carried her forward, and she was unable to change her course in time.

With a sickening squelch, the Visored girl had a cold nodachi’s blade impaled in her chest.

Satisfied that his work was done, Hitsugaya lowered his zanpakutō to the ground, and allowed her to plummet to the ground. Without a glance downward, Hitsugaya kept his gaze on his unwounded opponents, ready for the next attacker.

* * *

Starrk knew he should feel angry over being stabbed in the back (figuratively), but he just couldn’t summon the energy to do so. He did not even brace himself as he impacted against the ground.

_“Starrk! What are you doing?!”_ Lilynette barked at him. _“Aren’t you going to avenge Baraggan and Halibel’s deaths? Aren’t you going to kill Aizen for betraying all of us? You’re pathetic!”_

“Revenge isn’t my thing,” Starrk grunted back. “I’ve had enough. Let the shinigami have their war on Aizen. They won’t want any help from us.”

_“The shinigami didn’t look too happy when those masked guys came,”_ the gun-girl retorted. _“But they had a common enemy, the same guy who just tried to kill us: Aizen. If they’re serious about beating him, the shinigami will take anyone they can onto their side.”_

“I’ve had enough,” he repeated. “Let’s just go home and take a nap.”

_“Starrk, you idiot!”_ Lilynette reprimanded furiously. _“You’re the Primera! You need to realize that! All you’ve been doing is trying to act cool. You haven’t fought seriously at all today! Aizen gave you the rank of Primera!”_

“Well, obviously it wasn’t enough.”

_“Then prove him wrong! If he doesn’t think you’re strong enough, then we’ll make him regret that he ever underestimated us!”_

Starrk was silent, but that seemed to motivate Lilynette even more.

_“Think about Baraggan and Halibel!”_ she shouted at him. _“Aaroniero! Szayel! Zommari! Nnoitra! They’re all dead because they followed Aizen! If you don’t want to avenge them, then fight for the Espada who are still alive in Hueco Mundo: Yammy, Grimmjow, and Ulquiorra! They’re jerks, and we may not like them, but at least we won’t be alone!”_

“For all we know, the shinigami team Aizen trapped in Las Noches has already killed them off,” the Primera muttered quietly.

_“We don’t know that! And it’s all the more reason to fight Aizen and then go save their butts!”_

Finally, Starrk opened his eye, and then took a deep breath.

“All right,” he conceded, and then stood up. The slash Aizen had delivered him was not as deep as it felt; in a mixture of his own raw power and reflexes, the tip of Kyoka Suigetsu had not managed to get past his ribcage. He took a deep breath through the nose; he knew that to fight against his former boss without holding back. His handguns began to shimmer and disappear, and then he said, “Let’s go, Starrk.”

* * *

The Visoreds were still reeling from the shock of Hiyori’s injury when a pillar of blue reiatsu suddenly flared into existence behind them.

When it disappeared, the Primera Espada stood on the air and faced the battle. He no longer possessed pistols in his hands, but instead was flanked by a pack of wolves.

“One of you said, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’” the monocular alpha commented. “So, shinigami and masked warriors, you got room for more such friends?”

“Just don’t slow us down,” Shinji said coldly as he left his best friend in Hachi’s hands.

“It’ll be nice to have your power on our side,” Love grinned as he rubbed a spot the Primera’s Ceros had managed to burn.

Soifon narrowed her eyes at the idea of having _another_ questionable ally against Aizen, but did not comment further.

“I get first crack at him,” the lead Visored told his allies, and then flash-stepped to appear in front of Aizen.

“Ōmaeda, stand by with the other lieutenants,” Soifon ordered. “Anyone below captain-class will be merely deadweight against Aizen.”

The corpulent noble’s face went through phases of shock, insult, relief, and acceptance before, he nodded, “Sure, captain,” and then disappeared as per her command.

* * *

Despite Sakanade’s inverting abilities, it was not enough to subdue the master of Complete Hypnosis.

Just as Aizen was about to deliver another strike to his blond opponent, he was stopped by a hair-raising howl. The mastermind glanced around to see grey wolves charging at him from all directions.

“Really, Starrk,” he said. “Must you force me to use my sword against you more than once?”

Then he disappeared from the middle of the imminent assault to rematerialize right above the Primera with his blade ready to strike. Starrk already had his energy blades in his hands, and brought them up just in time to block Kyoka Suigetsu. Still, the weight of Aizen’s power made the Arrancar sink a few inches downward.

“I guess so,” Starrk answered his ex-boss’s question with his usual cavalier attitude, but the sharpest ear might have picked up traces of anger in his voice.

Instead of responding, Aizen flash-stepped away, just in time to avoid a potential decapitation from Kyōraku.

“Too bad, I was so close,” the Primera’s temporary ally lamented, as he and Starrk faced where Aizen now stood.

“You seem quite confident, Kyōraku-taichō,” Aizen commented.

“If you think that, I’m doing pretty well,” Kyōraku shrugged.

“Then perhaps I should correct myself,” the arrogant renegade amended with a frown, but before he could make good on that statement, Love came soaring in with his enormous mace aflame, and brought it down on his target. Aizen disappeared from his spot, thus easily evading the brutish assault.

“I couldn’t follow his movements,” Love growled as he saw his target unharmed a short distance away. “What incredible speed.”

“Group attacks, sneak attacks, distractions, decoys,” Aizen counted off. “Unless you combine all the fighting styles you know, you’ll never catch me.”

“How interesting!” Rose cried, whipping his zanpakutō forward with the sound of a strum of piano keys accompanying it. The golden cord wrapped itself around Kyōka Suigetsu, restraining Aizen’s movement. Even so, the Lord of Hueco Mundo managed to struggle against the restriction. “Can you stay calm against this many opponents?”

Lisa charged in with her spear, but Aizen managed to pull against the conductor’s grip and block the incoming attack.

“That’s good, Rose,” Lisa congratulated her teammate. “Keep him like that so he can’t escape!”

“I know that!” the artistic Visored replied indignantly.

From a third direction Aikawa came again with his oversized club. Aizen managed to shrug off Lisa and once again pulled against Rose to counter the incoming Visored’s attack. He then turned his attention to the other two, and exerted his reiatsu. Despite his calm exterior, the release of power was enough that it broke him free from Rose’s sun-colored whip.

“ _This_ is what I am talking about when I speak of power.”

Aizen flash-stepped above Love and brought down his zanpakutō before he could react. A single slash appeared on the Visored’s torso, and he succumbed to gravity and fell to the ground. From either side, Lisa and Rose charged forward to avenge their comrade. And with just as much ease as before, Aizen brought them low. With Rose’s own whip, the mastermind forced the blond Visored into range of his sword, preparing to do the same to him.

As he did, Soifon flash-stepped behind Aizen and thrust out with Suzumebachi. The hornet stung twice, but the familiar butterfly mark did not appear, nor did her target dissipate into spiritual particles. Instead he grabbed her right wrist and prepared to bring his sword down across her torso.

But before he could, Aizen felt an impending attack, and turned his head towards the pack of wolves charging his position.

“Danku,” the traitor calmly cast the bakudō spell, and the spirit-wolves crashed into the invisible barrier.

Soifon seized the brief distraction to bring her legs up and deliver a kick to Aizen’s throat. But the man’s focus had never completely left her, and so he pulled on her wrist; the force of which pulled her strike out of range of its target. He followed up by continuing his interrupted mission of slicing the Second Division captain open.

Once again, Kyoka Suigetsu’s descent was prevented by Starrk, this time by bursting in with sonido and blocked with his crossed spirit-blades.

Unperturbed by the interruption, Aizen said, “Tell me, Soifon-taichō; how does it feel to know that your life has been saved on multiple occasions today by individuals who are a hybrid of shinigami and Hollow?”

“Shut up, Aizen,” Starrk barked mildly. “You’re giving me a headache.”

“You and the rest of the Espada combined did not have enough power to even provide a challenge to me,” the sociopath ignored the command. “Your newfound allies among the Gotei 13 and mock Arrancar will fare no better.”

He accentuated his boast by throwing Soifon against Starrk, sending the both of them on an uncontrolled flight. When he had finished with that, he turned around just in time to prevent to block a potentially lethal blow from Kyōraku’s tachi.

“Nice reflexes,” the daishō swordsman complimented, and brought his wakizashi up for a slash to his opponent’s side

Aizen exerted more of his reiatsu, and pushed Kyōraku backwards, forcing him to break off his attack.

The Eighth Division captain recovered from the invisible shove and called out, “White.”

And he promptly disappeared in a buzz of shunpo. Aizen felt with his spiritual senses that Kyōraku was not preparing for an attack, but getting out of the way of his ally’s assault. And true enough, the tactical genius turned around to see Coyote Starrk’s pack charging his position. Just as the last time, a Danku spell rose to prevent their coming into contact with him.

But as the wolves slammed into the calmly summoned shield, he noticed Hirako Shinji standing not too far away, bearing a wide grin and his sword in Shikai.

Aizen spun in time for the spirit-pack to pounce on his body, and clamp their jaws on his legs, his arms, and his throat. The impending explosions would have only done mild harm to the rebel leader on their own. But while Katen Kyōkotsu was in the mood for a game of Irooni, the rules were different. The color called was white, and since both Aizen and Coyote Starrk were primarily clothed in that shade, it meant the damage done was increased exponentially.

The wolves detonated. An enormous explosion smaller than Soifon’s Bankai but larger than any sword release witnessed in the battle erupted where Aizen stood.

He emerged from the cloud of smoke coughing. Smoke drifted off spots on his sleeves and hakama, revealing second-degree burns. However, since the color called was white, it meant that the wolf which had detonated at Aizen’s throat failed to even scratch the skin; his melanin count was not low enough to be classified as truly “white” according to the rules of Irooni.

As soon as he had exited the dark cloud, Soifon materialized directly behind him and darted Suzumebachi to a vulnerable smoking spot on his arm. A stab at his unmarred skin might be able to resist her sting, but maybe an assault against his fresh wounds would get through.

But Aizen had detected the assassin’s approach the moment she appeared behind him, and acted accordingly. He vanished from Soifon’s sight, and the next thing she knew, she was descending to the ground with a large gash across her torso.

“Just as reiatsu determines the toughness of my skin, it also determines the speed of my reflexes,” he lectured her as she fell. “And just like you are too weak to harm me, you are too slow to keep up with my movements.”

“Takaoni!”

Aizen glanced upwards to see both Kyōraku and Starrk descending upon him with their blades ready to strike. The would-be god raised his zanpakutō to block the glowing blue swords of the Primera. Simultaneously, he summoned a shield of kidō to intercept the shinigami’s strike.

Both attackers impacted against Aizen’s defenses, but because the game of Takaoni ruled that the ones with the higher ground were stronger, the pair managed to push their target downwards. To press their advantage, Starrk quickly charged a Cero from his chin and released it in Aizen’s face.

His former master stepped out of sight in time to avoid the azure beam, and reappeared behind Starrk with his blade raised.

Before he could attack, he noticed Hirako rushing at him from his left side. Aizen gave a condescending smile, and pointed his blade to his right at the exact moment when the blond Visored was within inches of running him through. A moment later, the illusion dropped, and the master of the inverted world was the one impaled on his enemy’s sword.

“I already told you, Hirako Shinji,” Aizen informed him as he pulled Kyoka Suigetsu out of his former captain’s gut and followed up with a slash across his torso. “I have already conquered your childish zanpakutō.”

“Curse you,” Shinji spat blood out of his mouth as he dropped through the air.

Just a moment later, Starrk brought his swords down on Aizen while he was still watching Hirako fall. The right blade struck first, but Aizen managed to react in time to parry the attack. Starrk thrust forward with his left sword into the potential opening, but Aizen managed to twist out of the way and create an opening of his own. Starrk’s eye widened as he realized that he could not react in time to save himself.

“Irooni: White,” Kyōraku announced his reentry into the battle, and flash-stepped just in time to block the strike intended for the Primera. He had interposed himself between Aizen and Starrk, and had relieved himself of his haori. Both friend and foe quickly picked up on the strategy. Since Irooni maintained that only one color could be harmed at one time, and the Eighth Division captain was clothed in the color opposite of his ally’s, that meant he could act as a shield. Aizen’s attacks would do no harm to Kyōraku, but the reverse was not true. While the game-playing captain wore only the minimal parts of white himself, Starrk was still clad in that shade. Kyōraku would defend his ally from attacks, and allow Starrk an opening to deliver a lethal one of his own.

The ruthless captain then began his assault with his dual blades. His wakizashi was the primary assault force, attempting to keep Aizen off balance until he could follow up with his more powerful tachi.

But his enemy was quick and skilled; each strike was deftly blocked, and no moment of opportunity appeared yet. Quite the contrary, in fact. A moment's delay in bringing up one sword, and Aizen was gone.

Kyōraku quickly turned around and saw his enemy running Starrk through the gut. Since the color called was “white,” the captain knew that his ally’s chances for survival were slim to none. 

Then the game changed: now Katen Kyōkotsu wanted to play Takaoni again. Now that Aizen was no longer protected by the shade of his clothes, his open back was the perfect opportunity for Kyōraku to exploit.

“Takaoni!”

He sped forward and from a position slightly higher than his target, he swung his larger sword. As the tachi carved into Aizen’s upper back, blood spurted from the wound. The blade had sunk in deep enough to slice through the spine, effectively rendering him paralyzed from that point down. The traitor would be lucky to survive the injury, but just in case, Kyōraku followed up by striking forward with his wakizashi into his target’s back.

Aizen released a choking gasp as he felt the blade run him through. He slowly turned his head so that he could look at the man who had stabbed him in the back. And then the illusion shattered.

Kyōraku’s intended target was revealed to be in perfect health, completely unscarred by the Primera’s explosive mauling. But far more alarming was the revelation that he was _not_ the individual the war artist had struck.

Instead, Aizen had made a subtle but very significant switch: the victim of the sneak attack was Coyote Starrk. The Primera groaned as he lost all feeling below his chest as a result of Kyōraku’s mistaken attack. The only mitigating factor in this situation was that Kyōraku’s wakizashi thrust had gone straight through his Hollow hole, thus almost completely avoiding any damage from the smaller blade. But the gash in his lower back was serious enough wound by itself.

Kyōraku’s widened his eyes in horror as he realized his mistake. Arrancar or not, Starrk was an ally against Aizen. The pragmatic combatant would have only stabbed an ally in the back if it had ensured a killing stroke against Aizen. He quickly withdrew his blade from Starrk’s back and spun to face his real enemy, but it was too late.

Aizen had already delivered his standard slash across the torso from just above the captain, and succeeded in incapacitating one of the Gotei 13’s best fighters. Kyōraku had been beaten at his own game.

* * *

Coyote Starrk did not blame the shinigami captain for accidentally attacking him. He knew his chances for survival were nil, but he was content in the fact that at least he did not die alone.

_“Can’t really ask for more than that, huh?”_ Lilynette asked him, her voice oddly subdued as they fell to the earth.

“Guess not,” he muttered back.

He was unconscious when his body finally connected with the ground.

* * *

“I will not kill you,” Aizen informed his vanquished foes as they plummeted to the cityscape below him. “Your powers should let you all remain conscious, even with the wounds you have received. Just watch the outcome of this battle as you lie on the ground, unable to do anything.”

“ _AIZEN!_ ”

The sociopath spared a glance down to the source of the enraged roar, where he saw Komamura looking up at him with blind fury in his eyes. He was standing over what remained of Tōsen’s body, giving Aizen all the information he needed as to discern the immediate cause of the even-tempered captain’s wrath.

Before either side could make another move, a crack appeared in the sky behind the traitor, and Kurosaki Ichigo came crashing out.

The substitute shinigami was in Bankai, and he had his zanpakutō raised and ready to unleash a Getsuga Tenshō upon Aizen. The obsidian and crimson energy flew from Ichigo’s black blade and onto the back of Aizen’s neck… only to shatter against a green shield of kidō.

As the boy reeled from his failed ambush, Aizen explained smoothly, “Did you really think I would enter the battlefield without covering my blind spots, Kurosaki Ichigo?”

Before Ichigo could reply, Komamura planted himself between the traitor and the Gotei 13’s final ace in the hole.

“Kurosaki Ichigo,” he said to the man behind him without taking his eyes off his enemy. “I know the reason why you were sent here; I will not allow you to see Aizen’s Complete Hypnosis. Stay back, and wait until there is another opening for you to exploit.”

The youth reluctantly nodded and acknowledged, “Okay.”

Having heard his ally’s confirmation, Komamura declared, “Bankai!”

As the titanic figure of Kokujō Tengen Myō-ō appeared beside him, Aizen merely regarded the canine shinigami with his usual amused arrogance.

“Create another opening?” he inquired mockingly. “Komamura-taichō, what makes you think that you can follow up on your promise? You are hardly the strongest individual I have been forced to use my blade on today.”

Komamura elected to let both his swords make his rebuttal for him. He swung his katana once, and his kaiju puppet perfectly mimicked the motion as it swept through the air towards Aizen. Even though he knew of his enemy’s strength and speed, Komamura was still peeved when Aizen disappeared just before the gargantuan blade reached him.

And a second later, Komamura coughed up blood as he realized that his torso had just been sliced through. Aizen stood behind him, not even looking back as he absent-mindedly whipped the blood off his zanpakutō, and the captain of the Seventh fell to the ground just as all the other warriors or allies of the Gotei 13 had before him.

“Now, where were we, Kurosaki Ichigo?” Aizen asked nonchalantly as the young warrior gaped at him in horror.

Before the illusionist could continue, he was interrupted yet again by a pillar of flames accentuated by an eruption of spiritual pressure. Yamamoto Genryūsai had entered the battlefield.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Remember when I said that the rescue of Rukia was one of the hardest parts to write in this story? That was a walk in the park compared to planning out and executing the battle over Karakura. For a while, I did have Gin take Hitsugaya’s place and duel Halibel. But no matter how I cut it, Gin always ended up winning the battle within seconds after he releases Kamishini no Yari. Even having him save Rangiku and Hinamori from Ayon while simultaneously fighting Halibel did not seem to hamper him much; in the original plotline, Gin actually made Halibel accidentally kill off Ayon by avoiding one of her attacks and letting it hit the monster. I just think he’s _that_ good.

My thanks to **Juliedoo** and **TykkiMikk** for reviewing the last chapter.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Today, we’ll be talking about healing kidō,” Rangiku began as she tapped a pointer in her palm, and then turned around so that she could see the projected images on the screen, detailing several moments of different healers casting the familiar green glow from different times throughout the war. Most prominent in these visual aids were Unohana, Isane, and Hanatarō, but Iemura and Kira also made an appearance. “Formally called kaidō, it’s a type of kidō used to heal wounds and injuries. Normally it’s only used by healers in the Fourth Division, but other experts who are well-versed in kidō can also use it.”

“Eh, what’s this?” Gin asked playfully as he walked onto the set. “Takin’ my job, are ya?”

“I just wanted to try it out for myself,” Rangiku answered with a grin. “What do you think?”

“Clear, concise, to the point,” he counted off. “Pretty good.”

“I learned from the best,” Rangiku fluttered her eyelashes.

“Flatterer,” he grinned at her.

“Hey, get a room!” Kyōraku jovially called from off-screen. The married couple displayed their respect for their former commanding officer by blatantly ignoring him.

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** In some ways, this is another chapter I’m not quite satisfied with, as there was a lot of jumping around with scenes, in attempt to cover events changed in the new timeline while skipping over unchanged moments (to varying degrees of success).

In hindsight, I don’t think having Tōshirō stab Hiyori was a good idea. First of all, I’m not entirely sure why Gin cut her down (and completely bifurcated her in the manga) in canon. If he hadn’t struck, Aizen would have, and the end result would have been about the same, so why intercede? Was it to satiate his own bloodthirst, or to “remind” Aizen that he was a dutiful and loyal subordinate? Or was it both? And if Gin struck down Hiyori, why didn’t he participate at all in the rest of the fight against Aizen? Why didn’t anyone try to counterattack Gin, and instead everyone ignored him for the rest of the battle?

Since Tōshirō is no sadist even in this timeline, the only reason I could see him pulling a similar stunt here was if it were to reinforce his cover as a dutiful and loyal subordinate of Aizen. But looking back, it probably would have been more in character for him to watch Hiyori charge in, get cut down by Aizen, and think to himself, “What kind of idiot would try to charge _Aizen_ in a fit of rage?”

However, I still like how I wrote the part with Kyōraku and Starrk teaming up on Aizen.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to Noiram ARDA and LadySelenay for the comments.


	14. Forward Unto Apotheosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Aizen overcomes one obstacle after another, the battle over Fake Karakura Town draws to a close

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 12/10/2013**

* * *

Hinamori stirred, and roused herself into consciousness. The last memory she had was of casting the Kurohitsugi, and then waking up here.

As she sat up and observed her surroundings. She noticed some of the other lieutenants nearby. There was Kira crouched next to Rangiku’s resting side, obviously applying some healing kidō to her. She also recognized Hisagi, Iba, and Ōmaeda standing not too far away, looking up at something in the distance. She followed their gazes, and saw Aizen in the distance, being attacked from several sides by the captains and some new arrivals that she did not recognize. And was that one of the Espada fighting Aizen, too?

But it was a figure standing some distance away from the battle on the remains of one of the buildings that caught her attention. It was Tōshirō. He looked different than when she last saw him on Sōkyoku Hill. He had abandoned the uniform of the shinigami, and was instead clothed in attire similar to what the Espada had worn.

She had to get to him. She knew it was not the wisest course of action, but it was one she _needed_ to undergo nevertheless.

Fortunately, it seemed like her friends had not noticed that she had woken up. So, as quietly as she could manage, the girl got to her feet and made a surreptitious exit.

Unfortunately for her, Hinamori found that Tōshirō was standing close enough to the battle that the reiatsu from the captain-level fighters started to affect her ability to stand. This was only worsened by the fact that she was still weak after her last attack on Halibel. Still, she persevered through the storm of spiritual energy, and finally landed behind where Tōshirō was standing, observing the fight between his master and the captains of the Seireitei.

“What are you doing here, Hinamori?” he asked without turning around.

“Tōshirō,” she panted, barely able to keep conscious. Just standing this close to the battle was exhausting her.

She gasped in surprise as she felt an arm wrap around her waist and lift her up in the air. Hinamori felt the effect of a shunpo, and realized that someone had picked her up. By the time she realized this, said person had already placed her gently on the ground.

Momo shook her head and focused on her surroundings. Judging by the person who stood before her now, Tōshirō had grabbed her and flash-stepped a short distance away, where the atmosphere was not quite as hostile.

“I’ll ask you again, Hinamori,” Tōshirō said. “Why are you here?”

She gasped a few times, catching her breath before standing up and facing her old friend.

“Why, Tōshirō?”

He did not answer.

“Why did you leave us?”

Tōshirō still did not reply.

All patience gone, Hinamori screamed, “ANSWER ME!”

With that shout, she drew Tobiume and attacked. Her friend calmly brought Hyōrinmaru out to block the impulsive assault. As the two zanpakutō pressed against each other, Hinamori looked into her old friend’s eyes. There it was again: pain. She could see the agony in Toshiro’s eyes, hurting over the fact that he was forced to cross blades with his childhood friend.

“Please, Tōshirō,” she whispered. “Why did you join Aizen? Didn’t you tell me that the reason you became a shinigami with me was so we could look out for each other? _Didn’t you?_ ”

“I did,” he said, finally giving an answer to one of her questions.

“Then _why_ , Tōshirō?” Hinamori asked. “Why did you break that promise? Why did you leave me? Why did you join Aizen?”

To those questions, he remained silent.

“I don’t know what Aizen told you to make you betray us,” Hinamori continued. “But he’s lying! He’s a monster! And people have been saying you’re just like him! But I know that’s not true, Tōshirō; Aizen’s just manipulating you into doing things you don’t want to do! Please, come back to us!”

Again, the ice dragon did not offer any type of response to her words.

“Say something!” Hinamori demanded, and wildly started to attack with her sword again.

Tōshirō easily kept up with each predictable and unfocused strike. Despite the rage and pain in her voice, or perhaps because of them, there was no killing intent behind her swings.

Their “duel” was interrupted when they both felt a massive drop of reiatsu nearby. Both turned towards the direction Aizen and his opponents were fighting. They were still close enough that Hinamori could see some of the individual details. But after what she saw, she wished she had not.

“No…” she whispered in despair as three of the masked newcomers fell to the ground. She did not know who they were, but they were fighting Aizen, and that was all that mattered to her.

She turned back to look at Tōshirō’s reaction. He seemed mostly indifferent to the larger battle that was being fought not too far away, but he also appeared completely unsurprised by the outcome.

“Please, Tōshirō,” Hinamori pleaded. “Help us defeat Aizen.”

“I cannot,” he answered. “Even if I joined the battle, the end result would be no different.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aizen’s power does not lie in his Complete Hypnosis. While it is a terrifying ability, that is not what made him so completely obeyed by Hollows in Hueco Mundo. The reason he’ll win this battle is simply because he is strong. No matter how many plans you make, Aizen will overcome them all.”

She simply looked at him, before a disappointed look came over her face.

“I see,” she finally said. “So that’s why you’re following him.”

Tōshirō moved his gaze towards her again.

“You’re doing this because you think he’s stronger, and you think he’s going to be on the winning side,” she continued to say quietly.

He just continued to look at her, not reacting to her words.

“What a _coward_.”

The word hung heavy in the air between the two, and Hinamori noticed the unnatural stillness Hitsugaya had attained.

Inwardly, she knew Tōshirō was no coward. She just hoped that by saying it out loud, it would provoke him into revealing the _real_ reason why he thought following Aizen was a good idea. Idly, she wondered if she had been spending too much time with Captain Ichimaru if she was trying such subtle means of manipulation against Tōshirō.

The powerful silence was interrupted again by a grand disruption in reiatsu levels. This time, the two turned in time to see Kyōraku and another man she swore she recognized as one of the other Espada cut down.

Hinamori’s eyes widened as she saw her former captain defeat each of his opponents with terrifying ease.

When Kurosaki Ichigo burst through the Garganta, her hopes soared. Those hopes quickly found lead weights attached when proof of Aizen’s foresight was revealed, and he remained unscratched by the substitute’s surprise attack. And they dropped even further when she saw Komamura got cut down in an effort to provide an opening for their ally.

“No…” she whispered as she witnessed the giant toppled.

“Run.”

The willowy girl turned to Tōshirō.

“Run,” he repeated. “Don’t get yourself killed by sticking around.”

Whatever Hinamori was going to say in response was lost in the maelstrom of flames that had appeared, announcing the Captain-Commander’s entrance into the battle. Even though they were far enough from the conflict’s epicenter that several captain-class reiatsu sources should be bearable, Yamamoto’s seemingly infinite power still overwhelmed her. For the second time that year, she was sent to her knees by the release of Ryūjin Jakka.

Distantly, she could feel someone picking her up again, and she knew who it was. She was just conscious enough to grumble inwardly about the situation, but was not able to put up any external protest.

As the rising temperatures added to the burden of raw spiritual power, Hinamori found that she could not stay awake any longer.

* * *

Hitsugaya gave a small growl from his throat as he caught Hinamori in his arms. His irritation was not with her, of course, but instead with being forced to endure the heat from Yamamoto’s firestorm once more.

He flash-stepped away from the origin of the molten reiatsu which roasted the air around him. A few steps were all that it took to reach the area where the lieutenants had based themselves. They were so focused on the battle with his master that none of them had detected his approach, so he decided to just look for a relatively comfortable place to let Hinamori rest.

“Put. Her. Down.”

The white-haired fighter glanced at Ichimaru Rangiku, the first of the vice-captains to notice his presence, and delivered her command as she sat up. Despite the difficulty she had in standing up, the strength of her eyes was still _very_ present. She was leveling a glare at him so frozen even he felt its chill.

The other lieutenants turned around to first look at patient, and then followed the path of her glare, and collectively gasped as they finally recognized the presence of the enemy in their midst. Kira reacted first by jumping to his feet and spinning to face his former captain with Wabisuke drawn. Hisagi, Iba, and even Ōmaeda were only milliseconds behind, all three of them flanking their comrade and placing themselves between Tōshirō and Ichimaru.

The young defector paused for a moment as he watched the injured woman slowly get to her feet with the help of Hisagi and Kira. The two men each held an arm to aid her gradual ascension, and she gently dismissed their hands after she had succeeded in getting upright. Ichimaru then drew her own zanpakutō and took point of the formation facing their enemy. All the while, Tōshirō pondered whether or not he should stop to be contrary to the strawberry-blonde’s previous order, or just ignore her and continue to do what he intended.

Tōshirō finally decided to act on the latter, and gently set Hinamori down on a satisfactory piece of ground. After he straightened up, he took a few steps, but stopped when he heard Ichimaru speak again.

“You… don’t… deserve her.”

He heard her stumble forward step by step, a metallic chip heard every few seconds as evidence she was her sword as a cane to move forward.

“You probably think that you’re pretty gentlemanly, to treat your ‘old friend’ so nicely despite being on opposite sides,” Ichimaru panted with each step. Her words came easier as they were fueled by rage on behalf of her friend. “But let me tell you this: if you _really_ cared for Hinamori, you would have _never left her!_ ”

Tōshirō expected a furious attack upon her finishing that proclamation. He knew that the lieutenant of the Third Division was not normally rash enough to attack a stronger enemy while she was so heavily injured, but her emotions could have overruled her in this instance. But to his mild surprise, they did not.

But instead of attacking, she had stopped. And he knew Ichimaru was now standing directly over Hinamori, acting as a guardian between her and him. They both recognized that if he truly wanted to fight, she would not stand a chance. Even with four lieutenants backing her up, the only ones who would last any significant amount of time against him were Kira and arguably Iba, who were still relatively fresh for a fight. But that was hardly the point. The woman was silently rubbing it in his face that _she_ was performing _his_ job.

If Hinamori had been awake, Tōshirō would have responded. But this was Ichimaru Rangiku, the woman who had never trusted him, who had treated him with the same distance and fears every other shinigami below the rank of captain had, albeit with more acute awareness than most. He did not hold any animosity towards her for it, but neither did he believe she deserved an answer from him.

However, Kira’s presence was another matter entirely. The dutiful man had served Tōshirō faithfully ever since he had appointed him his lieutenant all those years ago. The white-haired prodigy had always respected Kira’s work ethic and his devotion to his job and to his friends. For his sake, Tōshirō would give a reply.

He looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with his former subordinate, a sign to all present who he was truly speaking to. “I will do what I must to ensure Hinamori’s safety.”

Before anyone could reply to his words, Tōshirō ended the discussion by simply disappearing.

* * *

“I will never mistake the reiatsu of the zanpakutō stabbing me in the stomach!” Yamamoto declared triumphantly, and squeezed Aizen’s arm tighter. “You said that I had missed my opportunity. It is the other way around: an opportunity has opened up!”

There was no other way to describe it. One moment, the traitor was standing healthily, barring one stubborn old warrior with an iron grip on his arm. The next, Aizen realized that he had been genuinely pierced for the first time since the battle began.

He glanced behind him, and noticed that the blade was at an angle; it penetrated him in the back dangerously close to his spine, and emerged at a slight incline. The bearer of this long white blade was somewhere within or behind the fiery pillar Yamamoto had created.

“Ichimaru-taichō,” the mastermind deduced, retaining his cool composure despite being pierced from afar. “Of course.”

The Third Division captain’s conspicuous absence from both the immediate vicinity and the Hueco Mundo strike team had not gone unnoticed by Aizen. He knew that Ichimaru’s Bankai had a _very_ extensive reach, and so had theorized that the snake was either far away on this battlefield, or was waiting in the real Karakura Town as a backup in case the main force failed to protect the pillars. It seemed that his former hypothesis was correct.

He glanced back at the man holding him, and blinked at the sight of the white blade penetrating Yamamoto’s stomach. Aizen stood corrected; the captain was not within the pillar of flames behind him; he was somewhere behind and below the captain-commander, and had obviously been forced to hit his superior officer in order to strike the enemy.

Kamishini no Yari disappeared, but both combatants knew she would strike again soon. One bite from the serpent’s fang would not be enough to fell her prey, but she could strike as many times as she felt was needed. Aizen had no intention of allowing that to happen. But first, he needed to get Yamamoto off him…

“Wonderweiss,” Aizen called.

“Behind you, jii-san!” Ichigo yelled in warning.

Yamamoto swung his zanpakutō at the enemy who had attempted to hit him from behind, only to see the Arrancar catch Ryūjin Jakka in its hands.

As the pillar of flames behind him was extinguished, Aizen watched in satisfaction as he saw the mentally deficient Hollow combat the opponent he had been created to fight.

Now, he could focus on his invisible enemy.

* * *

“Aizen’s looking in our direction,” Sasakibe informed the captain in front of him.

“I wonder how he plans to counter this,” Gin commented off-hand, and carefully aimed Kamishini no Yari again. After withholding his blade for the entire battle, under orders to only strike when he saw a sure opening to kill Aizen, it felt _good_ to finally participate in the conflict.

He stood at the very edge of fake Karakura Town, just inside the barrier which separated the spiritual and the mortal. On the other side of the invisible wall was Sasakibe with a pair of special binoculars from the Twelfth Division. They were designed so that the user could examine the hairs of a target a mile away. At the moment, Sasakibe could see Aizen raising his left hand and extending a finger almost exactly at them.

“He’s getting ready to fire off a Byakurai!” Sasakibe barked without taking his eyes off the enemy.

Gin did not waste any time, and leapt off to one side. Just a moment later, the spell of White Lightning cut into the ground he had been standing on. Fortunately, hadō traveled much slower than a supersonic zanpakutō did, so that meant Gin had more time to dodge Aizen’s only offensive option. Though the fox had to admit, it was rather impressive of Aizen to get this close to hitting him from that distance. Hadō spells could only travel as far as the person casting them could make them. Only a captain level kidō master could hit a target over five hundred meters away. For Aizen to do so twice from that distance and still have significant strength was a testimony to the illusionist’s level of power.

Of course, Aizen had to know that the sniper would no longer stand still, now that his target was aware of Gin’s presence, just as he had to know that these Byakurai would not work; the best way to deal with an enemy with a longer reach than you was to close the gap. A tactical mastermind like Aizen would know that; so Gin realized that whatever Sasakibe was seeing through his binoculars was an illusion. The reality was that Mr. Big Bad was probably on his way to their location right now.

Even though he was somewhat expecting it, it was still rather painful for Gin to suddenly discover he had a half-meter gash across his torso, and his enemy standing calmly behind him in a finishing pose.

“Ichimaru-taichō!” the wounded fox heard Sasakibe cry in alarm.

Gin let himself fall. He was only partly playing dead; while the injury Aizen dealt him was serious, he could still use Kamishini no Yari’s hypersonic strikes. Since he had been close to the ground when he had been hit, the fall’s end was not as painful as it could have been. He was still conscious as he listened to Aizen confront the First Division Lieutenant.

“So tell me, Sasakibe-fukutaichō, what _will_ you do now? All the captains have been defeated, one of which I have just beaten in front of you. Will you abandon your post, ignore Yamamoto-sōtaichō’s last command to you, and engage me in what will be ultimately futile battle? Or will you remain steadfast, keep your position, and hope that I will not deal out further damage as you watch on in impotence?”

Silence met the boastful challenge.

“Just as I expected,” Aizen noted smugly. “You chose to obey your captain-commander’s last directive.”

Most would interpret that line as the perfect opportunity to pull a sneak attack. But Gin knew better. Aizen was not the type to not put a defeated enemy out of his mind unless he was sure that enemy was completely beaten. Gin knew that he had presented himself as a cunning fighter, and an ambush via playing opossum would be predicted by the tactical genius. So while the trickster’s injury meant he needed to act sooner rather than later, he also needed to wait until a genuine opportunity presented itself.

An explosion of flames erupted from the vicinity of Yamamoto’s battle, and the master tactician looked in that direction.

“It seems that the captain-commander has finished his battle,” Aizen commented, and then disappeared, presumably to finish off his highest-priority target.

Even though he was gone, Gin was fairly sure he could track Aizen’s reiatsu and use Kamishini no Yari to make another strike.

“I know what you’re thinking, Ichimaru-taichō, but don’t bother,” Sasakibe told his scheming ally as he appeared at his side. “Your injuries are too severe to pull off a sneak attack powerful enough to harm him.”

“What happened to staying at yer post?” Gin asked, his breath rattling.

“Don’t try to speak. I only know the basics of healing kidō, so don’t make my work any harder than it needs to be,” the older man ordered, and then went on to explain his reasons. “Yamamoto-dono ordered me to keep watch on exterior threats to the substitute Karakura Town. If I engaged battle with Aizen, even if he is the greater threat, I would be allowing an opening for an attack on the three remaining pillars, and thus give him an immediate opportunity to create the Ōken. You are close enough to the barrier that I can help you heal while keeping an eye on other dangers. So while I can heal you for now, the moment I detect even a whiff of a Hollow’s reiatsu, I will leave you.”

Gin nodded once in acknowledgement of his healer’s words, and sealed his power back into its basic state.

* * *

Everything was going according to plan, Aizen noted smugly. Ichimaru Gin and his sniper abilities had been disposed of, and Wonderweiss had succeeded in his mission to take down Yamamoto with his own flames.

Now that the once-great warrior had been toppled, Aizen could now execute the old man at his leisure.

Just as he stopped next to his enemy’s fallen form, a hand clamped down on Aizen’s ankle, actually succeeding in surprising him. He saw that Yamamoto was still conscious and glaring up at him defiantly.

“Hadō Number Ninety-Six: Ittō Kasō!”

The only things that saved Aizen were his quick reflexes and reiatsu-enhanced skin. The instant Yamamoto’s grip disintegrated into the forbidden kidō spell, the renegade launched himself away from the epicenter of the explosion. Nevertheless, even as he emerged from the pillar of crimson flames in one piece, he was still scorched in several places.

Aizen did not even have a moment to consider his close call when he felt an impending attack. He turned towards the threat and saw that Kurosaki Ichigo was on the assault, his black blade glowing with dark energy.

“Getsuga,” his new opponent growled, and then unleashed the fury of his attack with a roar of, “TENSHŌ!”

For the first time, the substitute shinigami had truly gotten the drop on Aizen, and succeeded in carving his signature move into the illusionist’s chest.

For all the good it did him.

* * *

Having finished his conversation with his dad, Ichigo flew up towards the top of the building where Aizen stood. The sight of the skyscraper’s roof burst into view, and he saw that not only was the mastermind there, so was his only remaining subordinate. Since the shorter man was closer, the substitute shinigami launched his opening attack on him. With a cool gaze backwards, the white-haired warrior drew his zanpakutō from his scabbard and calmly blocked the strike. The building beneath them collapsed as he felt his dad attack Aizen, the strain too much for the structure, and so Ichigo was forced to take the fight into midair. The clash was brief, their blades only crossed a few times before the two combatants pushed away from each other and landed on the rubble below to consider their opponent.

Hitsugaya was looking at him with an expression not dissimilar to Kuchiki Byakuya or Ulquiorra: absent of emotion. Seriously, why was it the only enemies he fought were either psychos or stoics? The cold dragon-like warrior before him was completely devoid of anything. It was like he was not looking at Ichigo at all.

“It’s been a while, Kurosaki Ichigo,” the youthful fighter bugging his thoughts commented. “We haven’t been formerly introduced, have we? I am Hitsugaya Tōshirō.”

“Well, you since you already know my name, I guess it’s dumb to tell you,” Ichigo replied. “I remember you from that day on Execution Hill.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah.”

“You have a good memory.”

“You’re not here to just chitchat, are you?”

“No. While Aizen defeats your allies, I will take care of you.”

With that said, Hitsugaya leveled it into a standard kendo position.

“And because your reputation precedes you, Kurosaki,” he continued, “I will not hold back. Bankai!”

The temperature plunged downwards as icy reiatsu burned off the prodigy’s body. In the same way a bonfire would heat up its environment, Hitsugaya chilled the air within the boundaries of his domain. The cool autumn day instantly changed into a freezing winter ice storm. And the rapid increase of power stirred up the air around him, and wind rushed out from him.

Ichigo held his ground against the tearing winds caused by Hitsugaya’s release of reiatsu, though the chill gnawed at his skin.

“Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!”

The substitute shinigami took in his enemy’s Bankai in stride, but the amount of power now radiating from the kid kept Ichigo from underestimating him. That, and the fact that the sky had darkened into an ominous storm clouds told Ichigo that despite his apparent youth, the former captain was powerful.

A swing from his nodachi, and Hitsugaya let loose a flock of icicles at the substitute shinigami.

Ichigo quickly flash-stepped to another location, and only to find Hitsugaya already there and bringing his sword around for an attack. He raised Tensa Zangetsu, and blocked Daiguren Hyōrinmaru.

* * *

Slowly, Hinamori began to rise to consciousness as she felt a familiar source of spiritual pressure release his power.

_Tōshirō…_

* * *

Ichigo had hated the rain ever since he was nine years old. Now, at age fifteen, with frozen drops stabbing at his skin like a storm of needles, he developed a newfound hatred of precipitation.

“This is the most basic and most powerful ability of my zanpakutō: Tensō Jūrin,” Hitsugaya explained. “The very weather around you is mine to command, as is all the water I can sense in the area.”

Ichigo wasted no more time. “Getsuga…”

Hitsugaya pointed his nodachi at him and declared, “Sennen Hyōrō!”

At that command, several pillars of ice shot out of the ground and surrounded Ichigo in a circular frozen cage. The teenager looked around at the impossibly tall columns before he turned his eyes back to his opponent, just in time to see him twist his zanpakutō counter-clockwise ninety degrees. Realizing that something Very Painful was about to happen, Ichigo quickly put on his Hollow mask, and bellowed the word to finish his attack, “…TENSHŌ!”

The move was just in time. As soon as the dual-tone energy blast was unleashed, the icy pillars rushed inward, obviously intending to imprison him at best, or pulverize him at worst. Ichigo’s Lunar Fang pierced through the ice in front of him, and he took that opening instantly.

He rushed through the gap in Hitsugaya’s cage, and raised his black blade again to assault his opponent.

Ichigo took satisfaction in the look of mild surprise on the frigid fighter’s face as he escaped the prison, but he managed to raise his long blade in preparation for the impending attack. But the young Visored did not head for Hitsugaya’s sword.

Instead, Ichigo flash-stepped forward and stabbed his right wing. The dragonish warrior looked at the human in raw and open shock.

“Getsuga… Tenshō!” Ichigo roared, and let lose the dark energy of his signature attack into the icy pinion. The explosion forced him to fly backwards several meters. He righted himself on a platform of reiatsu and inspected the damage he had inflicted.

To his satisfaction, Hitsugaya’s right wing had been destroyed, and there were a few cuts on the boyish face due to the icy shrapnel. But despite the heavy blow, the short warrior did not even look bothered, and a moment later, Ichigo found out why: within moments after the attack was finished, the wing began to reform itself.

“Since my Daiguren Hyōrinmaru is made of ice, we can heal our Bankai as long as there is water around,” Hitsugaya explained as his wing finished repairing itself.

“Tch, that’s annoying,” Ichigo muttered to himself.

It was during this brief lull in their clash that Ichigo felt a terrifying growth of reiatsu from Soul Society’s number one enemy. Considering that the substitute was totally surrounded by a winter storm that was Hitsugaya’s Bankai, and considering that Ichigo’s spiritual senses were as refined as Kenpachi’s, that meant something.

Forgetting about his battle, Ichigo looked around to see the source of the rising spiritual power. The sight of Aizen battling his father, Urahara, and Yoruichi simultaneously and with increasing ease gripped his attention.

“You shouldn’t let your guard down like that.”

Ichigo gasped and whipped back into a fighter’s stance. He had been so absorbed in Aizen’s transformation that he had completely forgotten about Hitsugaya.

“Calm down,” Hitsugaya assured him, his posture slightly more relaxed. “I’m not going to fight you right now. Look.”

He turned his eyes towards the fight still occurring, and Ichigo followed suit.

“Aizen’s grown powerful.”

Ichigo could tell that, and he felt dread and hopelessness grow inside him each time an attack was deflected by Aizen with ease.

“He’s going to kill you all.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Ichigo swore.

“I thought you’d say that,” Hitsugaya nodded, and if the teenager did not know better, he would have sworn there was approval in that gesture.

“And now that Aizen’s this strong,” Ichigo spoke without taking his eyes off the fight, “there’s no telling what he’ll do to you.”

The ice warrior paused and gave a considering look at him.

“That’s something I did _not_ expect you to say,” Hitsugaya finally said. “It sounds like you’ve already given up.”

“What? I didn’t…”

“I was hoping you’d be better than that, but I guess not,” he continued, and raised Hyourinmaru again. “I can’t allow Aizen to fight a coward like you.”

Ichigo raised Tensa Zangetsu to block whatever attack Hitsugaya was going to launch, but the boy merely pointed his blade to the sky and softly spoke, “Hyōten Hyakkasō.”

The human had almost gotten used to feeling of the frozen rain assaulting his skin, so it was rather jarring when it suddenly stopped. He reflexively looked up to find out why, and his eyes widened at the sight. There was a large hole in the sky, and descending downward slowly were large flowery snowflakes.

Knowing that this could not be anything good, Ichigo charged forward before the innocent-looking precipitation could reach him. But he was too late: a drop had already landed on his blade, and it sprouted like a flower in bloom.

“The battle is now over, Kurosaki,” Hitsugaya informed the shinigami hybrid. “The moment one of those flakes touches you, they will turn into a flower and entrap you.”

Ichigo wanted to retort, to evade the deadly downpour, but there were simply too many of them. He could not dodge them any more than he could dodge the rain. He tried to swat a nearby flake away, but it simply latched onto his blade and opened its petals. He flash-stepped away from one to prevent it from hitting his arm, only to feel another sprout on his back. And it only got worse from there.

Less than a minute later, Ichigo was frozen solid, and trapped within a pillar of ice flowers.

* * *

Tōshirō had just finished sealing Kurosaki Ichigo when he heard three other bodies impacting into the ground. He glanced around to see the fallen forms of Urahara Kisuke, Shihōin Yoruichi, and Kurosaki Isshin. And walking towards him was his master, mildly scuffed up but otherwise unperturbed by his apparent injuries.

“What have you done to Kurosaki Ichigo, Tōshirō?” Aizen asked.

“I took care of him,” the boy answered.

“You have not killed him,” the evolving being noted.

“No,” Tōshirō confirmed. “Because of your interest in him, I kept him alive. Do you wish me to release him?”

“Thank you, but that will no longer be necessary,” the master said. “Do stand down.”

“Yes, sir,” the white-haired warrior obeyed by dropping out of Bankai, as evidenced by the lightening of the skies and the sublimation of his frozen attire.

“Open the Senkaimon,” Aizen ordered. “We will head to Karakura Town in Soul Society, and form the Ōken there.”

“Yes, sir,” Tōshirō brought his zanpakutō forward and unlocked the passage which would enable them to enter the world of the shinigami.

The sliding doors appeared, but before they entered, pieces of Aizen’s carapace seemed to crumble off.

“Aizen?” Tōshirō inquired with a slightly cocked eyebrow.

“It seems I have reached the end of the Chrysalis stage,” the transcendent being noted, more to himself than to his subordinate. After the flakes of white ceased to fall, Aizen’s head could be seen again, but it was different. His hair was much longer, and his eyes now shone a deep violet hue which matched the gem nestled in his chest. “That’s good. It means I’ll be able to witness the end of Soul Society with my own eyes.”

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Yes, sorry, I made it so Gin couldn’t kill Aizen. Again. Canon-Gin knew how and when to kill Aizen, but waited too late to move. AGNH-Gin struck early enough that Aizen was not protected by the Hōgyoku, and even managed to get past his Complete Hypnosis thanks to Yamamoto, but did not have Kamishini no Yari’s venom to finish the job.

I also had a version written that because Gin struck Aizen before Yamamoto unleashed more flames than the initial blast, Wonderweiss’ explosion was not enough to beat him. In this version, Yamamoto was also able to fight Aizen, even with the latter’s illusions, because the instant Aizen tried to go in for the kill, Yamamoto would feel Aizen’s reiatsu the moment the blade touched his skin and dodge just in time. The problem: I had trouble finding a scenario where Aizen won. While I would love to write a fight where Yamamoto beats the tar out of Aizen, I knew that if I wanted to write a serious Bleach fanfic, Aizen had to win. The only way I could do that was to have Aizen wait until he was Hōgyoku-powered enough that he could defeat the general in a straight-up fight. But that would involve changing a lot of plot that I had already written for this story, so I decided to keep the canon battle intact.

I also have Hitsugaya being a _much_ better fighter than in canon for a couple of reasons. One, since he’s Aizen’s right-hand man, Hitsugaya has quite a bit of motivation for being as strong and as powerful as possible. Secondly, since Hitsugaya _is_ a villain in this timeline, that means he’s going to be far more ruthless than the Hitsugaya we know from the original timeline.

As always, thanks to all my reviewers, **Juliedoo** , **TykkiMikk** , Raven’s Shadow, **Boar Rushes Down The Mountain** , and **TakaSasuke**.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Looks like I won’t be in the next chapter,” Gin commented lightly. “Guess it’s Hitsugaya’s turn to hog the spotlight.”

“Don’t feel bitter about it, Ichimaru,” Hitsugaya said. “You’ve gotten a lot of attention this story, so you should let other people have a turn.”

“Hey, I didn’t show up in the last two chapters!” Ichimaru pointed out. “An’ ya got yer moment to shine in this one, so ya shouldn’t be complainin’. Especially considerin’ what’s gonna happen next…”

“Don’t tell them,” the young dragon warned.

“I ain’t gonna spoil it fer ‘em,” the fox indignantly protested. “I’m just sayin’ that the next chapter’s gonna be a whammy.”

“Even that’s pushing the limit.”

“So ya wouldn’t like it if I told ‘em that next chapter is the one where…”

“Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyōrinmaru!”

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** This story was written early in the TYBW arc, so unfortunately before the revelation of the true form of Toshiro’s Bankai. As such, when I imagined him as stronger than canon, I simply thought he wouldn’t need those ice petals as a countdown anymore, and he would have greater control over Tensō Jūrin.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to Noiram ARDA and Dryocampa for their comments!


	15. Another Nail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A warm and friendly reunion between former and current officers of the Fifth Division.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 12/17/2013**

* * *

Don Kanonji’s rod stopped only inches before Aizen’s mere presence could disintegrate him. The three men present looked at the cause, and saw one determined Hinamori holding onto the showman’s forearm.

“I’m here in time,” she panted, and released Kanonji when she was certain that he would not kill himself by walking forward. She locked eyes with Tōshirō, her determined brown grappling with his cool turquoise.

“Who are you?” Don Kanonji yelled in a panic. “It’s too dangerous for you! Civilians should stay back!”

Without turning around, Hinamori softly spoke. “Run.”

When this order was not immediately followed, she elaborated, “I’ll handle things here. So take those two girls and run.”

“What are you talking about, girl, I am…” His protest trailed off as the lieutenant slowly turned around and gave him a _look_. It was as if a dark shadow had appeared over her eyes, giving birth to an unspoken promise that if he did not obey her, he would experience unholy pain and suffering.

“Pick up those two girls,” she said slowly, an aura of death hanging over her eyes, “and _get. Them. Out of here._ Understand?”

Don Kanonji hated to retreat, but running from bad guys and fleeing from scary women were two _completely_ different circumstances.

“Very well, I’ll leave things here to you, girl,” he surrendered, throwing the two Karakura citizens over his shoulders. “But if you ever need a hero…” He shut up and started running when Hinamori started giving him that _look_ again.

“By ‘here in time’,” Aizen said after the humans were gone, “were you referring to saving those humans? Or were you referring to me destroying Karakura and creating the Ōken? Either way you were wrong.”

Hinamori did not answer, and focused her glare on her former captain. Unfortunately, it had no effect on the demigod.

“What’s wrong, Hinamori-kun?” Aizen asked, an insincere gentle tone entering his voice. “Are you still hurting from my leaving you?”

“No.”

“Oh? Are you sure?”

“Why would I miss the monster who manipulated Tōshirō into betraying Soul Society?”

“He joined me of his own accord, Hinamori-kun.”

“It’s your fault he betrayed us!”

“It is rather irresponsible to blame someone else for the actions of your friend,” Aizen chided mockingly.

Hinamori did not respond for a moment, but then spoke in a low, angry voice. “I know you’ve said that your goal is to become a god, Aizen. And I know that you don’t care about anyone, since we’re all just pawns in your eyes. But at least tell me this: was there _anything_ about you during your time as captain that _wasn’t_ a lie?”

“Hinamori-kun,” Aizen replied in that same mock-chiding as before, “that man _never_ existed.”

At her sides, Hinamori’s fists clenched.

“I see,” she almost growled. “Then I have nothing more to say to you.”

“Is that so, Hinamori-kun?” he said. “Then what will you do now?”

Without turning her head, she moved her eyes towards the other man facing her.

“Ah,” Aizen said knowingly. “Of course. Your continued quest to ‘redeem’ your beloved Tōshirō. Surely by now you realize that your efforts are in vain; even though you two are old friends, he is not foolish enough to betray me. Such an action will only result in both his death and yours.”

“You mean you’re blackmailing him?” she demanded, and glared daggers at him once more.

“Hardly,” Aizen replied. “Tōshirō has been quite useful to me during his years of service to me, so it is simple common sense that I repay him by not harming you, his best friend. As I just mentioned, betraying me now will hold no advantage for him.”

Hinamori hated to admit it, but her former captain had a point. With the aid of the Hōgyoku, Aizen had grown stronger, so strong that she wondered if even Yamamoto could stand up to him now.

“But did it ever occur to you that instead of convincing Tōshirō to change sides, we should have _you_ join _us_?” the would-be god continued.

Her gut instinct protested against the offer, but before she could speak her denial aloud, he went on.

“Initially, Tōshirō chose not to bring you along to Hueco Mundo because he respected your beliefs. He knew that despite being your dearest friend, you would never forgive yourself for turning your blade on your home in Soul Society and friends in the Seireitei. But matters are different now; the Gotei 13 has been defeated. The only step I need to take is to turn this city into the Ōken and I will be able to enter the Soul King’s dimension and replace him. By then, it will not matter if you oppose me or not, as your opinions and actions are of no consequence. If you stay with Tōshirō, the both of you will survive, and you can be reunited with your old friend for good. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Hinamori was ashamed to find that a part of her _did_ want that path to occur. Her heart _ached_ to be with Tōshirō again, to no longer be forced to be an enemy of his. But then she recalled that “minor” problem with Aizen’s idea: the death of a hundred thousand humans. As much as she wanted her reunion with her childhood friend, it would be _wrong_ to sacrifice anyone for that purpose. Even though she knew that Aizen could easily kill her, Hinamori decided she would rather die in a futile attack rather than step aside and do nothing as he initiated a massacre.

“If I may,” the young man in question finally spoke up before she could answer. “I would like to take her and have a private conversation with her.”

“Go ahead, “Aizen permitted easily. “Take as much time as you need.”

As soon as he had finished that sentenced, Hitsugaya ran forward and scooped up Hinamori in his arms before disappearing in a single tremendous leap.

* * *

_“You are an extraordinary boy,” Aizen told the boy sitting on the ground amongst a forest of ice and snow. “What is your name?”_

_A moment’s hesitation, and then the lad answered carefully, “Hitsugaya Tōshirō.”_

_“Do you realize the amount of power you wield?” Aizen asked._

_The boy shook his head._

_“You have a great amount of potential,” the shinigami informed him. “But power is useless unless you know how to control it.”_

_“Can you teach me?” Tōshirō asked._

_“Enter the Shin’ō Academy,” Aizen answered. “They’ll give you the basics of how to control your reiatsu and how to become a shinigami. If you are still interested in what I have to offer you, then come join the Fifth Division.”_

_Tōshirō just looked at him for a second before he gave a nervous nod._

_“Good,” Aizen said. “Now, have a safe trip home, Tōshirō.”_

* * *

“Tōshirō, put me down!” Hinamori squirmed in his arms as they flew over the buildings of Karakura.

Finally, she freed herself from his arms, and landed on the rooftop just below them. Tōshirō followed her down, but made no more attempts to restrain her.

“Why are you here, Hinamori?” the former captain asked.

“I came to ask you again: _why did you join Aizen?_ ”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“WHY NOT?” she screamed in frustration, all patience evaporated. “You betrayed Soul Society! You broke my heart! You’re about to murder a hundred thousand people just so Aizen can become ‘god!’ The _LEAST_ you owe me is an ANSWER!”

Breathing heavily as she finished her rant, Hinamori burned her glare into Tōshirō’s eyes.

After a moment of silently returning the gaze, he walked towards her. She tensed up, preparing herself for whatever his next move might be.

He stopped just in front of her, close enough that if circumstances were different, she would have brought her arms up and hugged him tightly.

“Momo,” he whispered, and raised his right hand up to lightly caress the side of her face.

“Shiro-chan,” she said softly in response to the intimate gesture, and relaxed her stance. For that moment, she could almost forget that they were supposed to be enemies.

“Hakufuku.”

The widening of her eyes was immediately followed by their closing as she fell unconscious.

Hitsugaya sighed as he caught his old friend and lowered her gently to the ground. Before he departed he quietly said, “I really am sorry, Momo.”

* * *

“You’re back,” Aizen noted as his subordinate landed behind him, interrupting his “pursuit” of the humans and one shinigami. “What did Hinamori-kun say?”

“She’s not coming with us,” Tōshirō answered. “I killed her.”

The aspiring deity chuckled inwardly, but did not let anything other than a confident smirk show on his face. The boy rarely tried to lie so blatantly, but Aizen decided to play along for now. He wondered if Tōshirō really believed that he would buy that story, or if he was simply relying on Aizen to continue their little game that they would _never_ lie to each other.

“Indeed, I cannot detect her reiatsu anymore,” he said out loud, though that meant nothing; there were several ways a person’s spiritual presence could be hidden, even from his senses. “I’m surprised. I thought you had deep feelings for her.”

“And that is why I killed her,” Tōshirō answered as he stepped past Aizen and stopped just in front of the demigod but facing away from him. “I am made of ice; she of fire. When fire melts ice, it turns to water and douses the flames. It is a law of nature.”

Aizen was quite amused at his lieutenant’s attempt at rationalizing his little fib. Before deciding how long he should humor his final subordinate, he heard one of the humans call for a retreat. As he watched them flee, he decided the issue with Tōshirō could wait a little longer.

“Yare, yare,” Aizen complained. “I’ve grown tired of catching mice.”

“What are you going to do after you kill them?” Tōshirō asked.

“I’ll string their corpses somewhere on the outskirts of town, where they’ll be easily seen,” Aizen replied, and raised his sword in preparation for the kill. “Then get to work on creating the Ōken.”

Since Tōshirō’s back was to him, Aizen could not see his expression, but the boy did say, “Very well. In that case, you take care of the Ōken, I’ll kill them.” Toshiro placed his hand on the end of Kyōka Suigetsu and drew Hyōrinmaru from his sheath, and raised the blade in front of him just as his master had done. Aizen could tell that the dragon spirit residing in that sword was hungry for his next prey.

“Tōshirō,” he said, considering the proposal.

The white-haired young man muttered something softly, but Aizen could not hear what it was.

“What did you say, Tōshirō?”

Aizen then blinked and looked down. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the change in his blade. It was now frozen solid, firmly connecting it to where Tōshirō held it in his left hand, which was just as iced over as the blade itself. He looked up at the young man and saw that icy wings now adorned his back.

“I said, ‘Bankai,’” Tōshirō snarled with Arctic hatred in his voice, and turned his head so he could glare at his former master over his shoulder.

“So, you have decided to make your move at last,” Aizen smirked in realization. “I knew you would someday try to kill me, Tōshirō. Ever since the night I met you, I could feel the murderous intent you felt towards me. I kept you by my side because I wondered how you would attempt your assassination. But I’m disappointed by your effort; it will take more than a little ice to end my life.”

“Actually, it won’t.”

Aizen blinked. “Surely you realize that none of your zanpakutō’s attacks can do any harm to me, as my power vastly exceeds yours.”

“Didn’t I tell you the most powerful aspect of my Bankai? _Any_ and _all_ water is my weapon.”

At first, Aizen was not sure what Tōshirō meant by that, until his sword hand began to stop sending sensory input to his brain, and the numbness spread from there.

Aizen’s eyes widened in veritable terror as he realized the full meaning of the iceman’s words. Three-fourths of the human body was composed of water. Tōshirō, who could turn any water into his weapon, was essentially _freezing Aizen’s blood_.

Frigidity flooded through the man’s torso, both literally and metaphorically, first going directly across his upper spine which cut off Aizen’s ability to move anything below that point, and then went on to harden the heart and lungs as the cold death spread throughout his body.

It was too late to do for Aizen to do anything but snarl his subordinate’s name one last time with a visible exhale of cold carbon dioxide, and then the ice enveloped his face.

* * *

Tōshirō watched coldly as the freezing of his ex-master became complete. The ice preserved Aizen’s features quite well, and he could see every inch of hate etched into the other man’s face. But Tōshirō felt nothing but satisfaction at his accomplishment, and he only spoke a brief eulogy at the rebel’s death.

“The release phrase for Kyōka Suigetsu is ‘shatter,’ isn’t it?”

On his mental command, the frozen figure that had once been Aizen Sōsuke shattered into a thousand pieces, leaving only the small sphere of the Hōgyoku intact. Now that the mystical orb was no longer in contact with Aizen, Tōshirō did not have to worry about it regenerating its ex-master.

Unfortunately, Tōshirō’s left hand had been frozen to Kyōka Suigetsu to make sure that Aizen could not cast an illusion on him, which meant the aforementioned hand was shattered as well. On the positive side, the self-inflicted frostbite also put ice on the stump of his arm, which prevented him from bleeding out, not to mention the fact that it also numbed the pain of the amputation. Tōshirō had known the consequences as soon as he put his hand on Aizen’s blade, but it was certainly worth the prize.

He resealed Hyōrinmaru and returned him to his sheath. Then he turned towards the Hōgyoku, which hovered just above the ground where Aizen had stood only moments before. With his remaining hand, Tōshirō reached down and picked up the enigmatic orb. After a moment of examining it thoughtfully, he sped away.

A few second later, he was next to Hinamori’s unconscious form. He knelt by her side and mentally deactivated the Hakufuku spell he had placed on her.

As he waited for her to fully wake up, he checked her physical condition. She actually did not have any injuries worth worrying about. Her reiatsu levels were still severely depleted from that high-level spell she had thrown at Halibel, and it would take some time for her power to grow back to normal. But it looked like she would be fine.

Hinamori stirred from her rest, slowly opening her eyes. They were slightly unfocused at first; it was obvious she had forgotten where she was, because as she looked at him, she gave him a small smile.

“Shiro-chan…?”

“I’m here, Hinamori.”

The smile lifted slightly. He waited for the inevitable moment when the memories of their last encounter would come rushing back.

“Tōshirō!”

She sat up suddenly in alarm, which caused a collision between her head and his. In more surprise than pain, Hitsugaya leaned backwards, and held his head with his remaining hand.

“Hinamori…” he lowered his hand again.

“Ow! That hurt!” the girl cried out, massaging the impacted area of her skull.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said, still rubbing her head, and then froze. She looked directly at him and snapped, “I am _not_ all right! What are you doing here anyway? Where’s Aizen?”

“He’s dead.”

Hinamori stopped cold, her mouth open from the next question that would remain unasked.

“I killed him.”

To prove her jaw could drop any further, it did. Tōshirō waited patiently for her to regain her ability to speak coherently.

“H-how? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Aizen once told me the way to beat Kyōka Suigetsu’s Complete Hypnosis.”

Tōshirō took no small amusement in seeing Hinamori’s expression flounder for a few moments as she tried to find the right words to say. He managed to control his expression and waited patiently for Hinamori to speak. “What is going on?!”

“I was only working for Aizen so I could get close enough to learn how to beat his illusions. I had to wait for the right time to act, though.”

“How long have you been planning to kill him?”

Tōshirō paused as the memories of his motivation rose to the forefront of his mind.

“Since the moment I laid eyes on him.”

* * *

_It had not been easy for Tōshirō to track the thugs down. He had never followed anyone before, as he never had the need. But after what they had done to Hinamori, he would pursue them into Hell to make sure they got their due._

_Tōshirō remembered how he had found Hinamori unconscious on the side of the road, and how he had seen those men chuckling to themselves as they walked away from her bruised and battered body. Such attacks were rare in the First District, but they still occurred every now and then._

_He knew that what had happened to his friend was not an impulsive action from brutes like these. There was a mastermind at work here._

_Finally, Tōshirō found them. The three men who had hurt Hinamori, and they were bowing low to another shinigami in front of them. In their raised hands, as if bestowing an offering to a god, was the spiritual energy of his friend and most likely others who had been assaulted in a similar manner. He saw how the leader took the crimson sphere of energy and added it to another orb that he had in a glass cup, this one glowing azure._

_Tōshirō took a good look at the man standing tall, and made sure to carve the face into his brain. He did not know how, but he swore that one day, he would make this person_ pay _for hurting Hinamori._

_Cold fury rose inside him, and he did not notice ice and snow accumulating in the surrounding environment. Unfortunately for him, the wintery effects did_ not _go unnoticed by the very individual he was scheming against._

_Tōshirō only noticed after he saw his new nemesis appear in front of him without warning. He jumped backward and crawled a few feet, now feeling fear that he would be killed for spying on this monster._

_“Did you do this?” the despicable vermin asked calmly._

_Tōshirō’s anger was tempered by confusion as he noticed for the first time the fruit of his rage._

_“I…” the boy said, unable to decipher it for himself._

_“You are an extraordinary boy to have so much spiritual power at your age,” the monster continued. “What is your name?”_

_Tōshirō was about to snarl and attack with all his might, but managed to restrain himself as a thought occurred to him. The man had no idea that he wanted to kill him. This man knew something of power; how to get it, and how to control it._

_He finally made the connections in his brain. He had noticed that his grandmother had been getting thinner the past few weeks, and she always seemed to feel cold. As he saw the ice around him, he suddenly realized why. The figure in front of him knew a way for him to control this power, to prevent him from accidentally killing his anyone. Unintentionally, that is._

_And if he wanted to give Tōshirō the tools to kill, then it would be rather rude to refuse the offer._

_“Hitsugaya Tōshirō,” he finally answered. It took every piece of willpower he had not to laden the answer with loathing. Even then, he was not sure if it fooled this man._

* * *

Hinamori’s jaw dropped again as she heard her friend’s explanation for his long history of secrets and betrayal. She had almost forgotten that day, it had been so long.

“Tōshirō, you idiot!” she cried.

“Hinamori…?”

“I _never_ wanted you to take revenge! I wanted you with me! Do you know how much I was hurting when you left me?”

“I know,” he replied softly. “And I’m sorry. I had to do it to kill Aizen and get the Hōgyoku.”

“And now what?” Hinamori asked. “What if the Central Forty-Six decide that you should be killed for helping Aizen betray Soul Society?”

“I’m hoping that single-handedly ending this war will prevent that,” Tōshirō deadpanned. “Still, whatever comes, it was worth it to make sure he can’t hurt you again.”

Hinamori looked down, flattered that he would do so much for her, but still upset all the same for leaving her, for doing so many bad things for her sake. It was when she dropped her gaze that she saw something else.

“What happened to your hand?” she cried.

“I had to make some sacrifices to kill Aizen,” Tōshirō explained calmly, as if he were discussing a paper cut instead of an amputation. “I’ll be all right.”

“All _right?!_ ” Hinamori shrieked with disbelief. “Your hand is _gone!_ ”

“I realize that; you don’t need to scream it.”

She floundered for a few moments more at his lack of concern for his injury. Finally, she settled on a good old-fashioned scolding.

“At least seal up the wound with kaidō,” Hinamori said irritably. “Instead of just leaving a bit of ice there and risking frostbite on the rest of your arm!”

“Fine,” Tōshirō allowed and held out his left arm for her to start working on.

That was when the explosion of reiatsu hit them.

Shielding Hinamori from the assault, Tōshirō looked behind him, trying to find the source.

_“I win, Tōshirō.”_

Cold dread filled Tōshirō as he heard that smooth, despicable voice echo to him.

_“Even without being inside me, the Hōgyoku that you took belongs to me.”_

A flash of white light from the Hōgyoku lit the immediate area, and it disappeared from his hand. Suddenly Aizen was standing above them in a manner that was _not_ shunpo. He looked quite different now, with butterfly-like wings on his back, and cracks all over his body like lines on a broken mirror. Even with this fragile appearance, it did not do anything to diminish the amount of raw power emanating from the evolved _thing_ , which rose to a level even beyond what he had a few minutes before.

As Aizen raised his sword, Tōshirō tried to reach for Hyōrinmaru. The winged deity’s blade moved faster, much faster. It dropped downward in the same amount of time it took to blink, and before the prodigy had time to realize he had just been cut, Aizen’s blade had already passed through his torso and sliced through several major organs.

Distantly, Tōshirō could hear Hinamori scream his name. He tried to tell her to run, but his lips would not obey him. Instead, all he could do was obey gravity’s law to fall to the ground. He did not even have the energy to wince as his back roughly hit the roof he had been standing on.

The next moment he could only watch on helplessly. He saw Aizen raise the point of his blade directly above his chest, obviously meant to kill him on the next thrust. And because of the fact that he could actually see his attacker do so, Tōshirō knew that his executioner had deliberately slowed his movements enough to see the impending death. Typical Aizen, it was never enough to simply kill someone; he had to taunt his foe’s powerlessness, too.

The blow did not come, but Tōshirō wished it had.

He instead found himself rolling over once and coming to a rest, his body in agony as every twitch agitated the fresh wound on his torso, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment. In the spot he had been occupying only a moment before, there was Hinamori, who had pushed him out of harm’s way just in time. But to Tōshirō’s horror she had paid the ultimate price for that act, with Aizen’s sword sticking through her back, and emerging through her chest. Disdainfully, he swung his sword and let the girl slide off it and land on the ground several feet away. She did not stir again.

Tōshirō could not believe his eyes. Decades of patience and planning had ended in _this_?

He could see Aizen’s lips moving, but he could not hear the words. Just as well; the man talked too much anyway. Tōshirō could see the monster raise his sword again over him, ready to strike the death blow. And this time, there would be no interference from pesky lieutenants.

Before the punishment for attempted deicide could be performed, they _felt_ someone land nearby. Aizen looked at the new arrival first, but the dying man on the ground was able to turn his head and see his potential savior for himself.

It was Kurosaki Ichigo.

Worry was Tōshirō’s first reaction upon seeing the substitute shinigami. He could not feel even an ounce of reiatsu from the newly arrived human, and the white-haired youth wondered if Kurosaki had only arrived in time to become Aizen’s next victim.

But then he saw Kurosaki’s eyes. When he had last seen the human, those eyes were filled with despair and the loss of will to fight. But that had changed; they now shone not only with true strength, but with something more…

Invincibility.

* * *

Ichigo looked over the scene in front of him with a serene confidence he had never felt before. After his dad had broken him out of Hitsugaya’s frozen flower funeral and given him a pep talk, they had taken off in pursuit of Aizen. Midway through the Dangai, Isshin had told about how Zangetsu knew about a final technique he could use, probably the only thing which would give him a chance against Aizen.

After a relative three months of training, Ichigo had emerged stronger than he could have ever imagined. Not only did he learn the secret of the Final Getsuga Tenshō, he was enlightened on the true relationship he should have with both his zanpakutō and his Hollow side. Now, he could truly face the monster, and defeat him.

The aforementioned psychopath was standing arrogantly over the half-dead bodies of Tōshirō and Momo. Not too far away were his friends, including that one shinigami whose name escaped him. A more focused search with his senses revealed that his sisters were safe as well. More importantly, the fact that they were not here meant they were not in immediate danger from Aizen.

His attention returned to the two that were closest to death. He could feel Hinamori’s life slowly draining away from the stab wound inflicted on her by Aizen. As for Hitsugaya, Ichigo could feel the other man’s eyes on him, before they closed for the last time.

Ichigo had seen how Momo had taken the blow meant for Tōshirō. He did not know if that meant that he had turned against Aizen, or if it meant that she still cared enough for her childhood friend to save him from Aizen regardless. Either way, he was getting rather sick of Aizen leaving a trail of bloody bodies behind.

Since he really did not want to hear any more of the blowhard’s arrogant monologues, he just told his enemy to move to another spot so they could fight without fear of collateral damage.

“An impertinent suggestion.”

Ichigo should have seen that coming. Well, as the old saying went, actions spoke louder than words. If Aizen was not going to listen to his “impertinent suggestion,” then he would have to _force_ him to listen.

There were several ways he could have done it. Grab Aizen’s wrist and throw him into the distance. Kick him in the stomach and rocket him to a new location. Use the flat of Tensa Zangetsu like a baseball bat and hit him into the outskirts. But finally he decided on something that would also complete a task that was _much_ overdue.

“Don’t worry; you won’t cause any harm to Karakura-!!!”

Left Palm? Check. Aizen’s Face? Check. Aizen _Finally_ Shuts Up? Double and Triple Check!

* * *

Darkness began to cloud Tōshirō’s vision, but he did not care. The view of Kurosaki silencing Aizen was one he would savor during his last moments. While his decades-long plot to assassinate his “master” had ended in failure, at least there was someone else to finish the job he started.

_There’s only one more thing to do_.

He exerted some of his reiatsu into the large laceration on his torso, causing ice to form across it and stop the bleeding. This was only a temporary fix, and he knew it. While this maneuver would prevent him from bleeding out, prolonged exposure to even his own ice in his weakened state would lead to frostbite and maybe even hypothermia. Even if he did not, eventually the ice would melt, and he would resume bleeding out.

But he did not do this for survival. At least, not his own.

Tōshirō eased himself onto his front and got to his hands and knees. With that done, he slowly crawled over to Hinamori’s unconscious form. Each inch he crossed seemed to take an eternity to travel, time enough that he felt like he would fail his friend and not be able to save her.

But finally, he reached her side, and she was thankfully still alive. Tōshirō did not hesitate; he simply pushed his reiatsu out, and inserted it into her wound. This was kaidō at its crudest form: transferring one’s power into another, the sacrifice of one’s life force to heal another.

_I refuse to let Hinamori die because of me._

He may have been unable to avenge his best friend, but Tōshirō would make sure she survived, even if it killed him.

* * *

**Author’s Note:** Yeah, I probably should mention that this fanfic operates on the assumption that _two_ nails are of want here. The first you knew from the prologue: Matsumoto was not the victim in the making of the Hōgyoku, and so Gin never had a reason to hate Aizen. The second nail, as you just found out, is that Hinamori was the victim instead, a few decades later (I am going under the assumption that Aizen continued to attempt to empower the Hōgyoku by feeding it souls for at least that long). Was it a bit forced, to have Hitsugaya travel down the same path as Gin did in canon? Probably, but I feel justified doing so, since the primary purpose of this fanfic was not just to explore how Gin would turn out if he remained on the hero’s side, but also to find out what would become of Hitsugaya if he faced Gin’s choices. Like I said in a previous author’s note, there are a lot of parallels between the two of them.

The inspiration for Hinamori’s Death Glare came from Episode 46/47, when she cast a Hakufuku on the guard to break out of her prison cell.

As for Hitsugaya’s method of assassination, I did not want to create a new power for him, but I also knew that his most powerful canon ability, controlling the weather, would not be subtle enough to take down Aizen after his bonding with the Hōgyoku. So I compromised: I expanded on his canon ability to control water, and had Hitsugaya freeze Aizen’s blood. Not only did he gain better control over his weather abilities, it made for a more refined and subtle technique. I feel justified in giving Hitsugaya so much more control over his Bankai than in canon because in this timeline, he’s been driving himself to find a method to kill Aizen for _decades._ In canon, that drive was only there for a couple of months. It’s for this same reason that Hitsugaya is much stronger in this timeline.

Hitsugaya shattering Aizen’s body is the reason why it took longer to regenerate, which leads me to how I decided to let Hitsugaya have the chance to explain his actions. One thing that bothered me about the aftermath of Gin’s death in canon was that we are not ever sure if his name is cleared.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I will be in my bunker, hiding from all the Hitsugaya fans. Again.

On a completely different note, I won’t be putting up a chapter next week because I’ll be out of town for Christmas. The next and final chapter will be published in two weeks, appropriately on New Year’s Eve.

This story is now on TV Tropes’ Bleach Fanfic Recommend page, thanks to **Mei-chiri**.

Thank you for the reviews: **Shen an Calhar** , **Juliedoo** , **TykkiMikk** , **TakaSasuke** , **Mei-chiri** , **Miss Watzername** , and anonymous guests.

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

“Quiet down everyone, the best part is about to come,” Rangiku called.

The top officers of the Gotei 13 and the Visored had all gathered to witness the final battle between Ichigo and Aizen. They had all managed to squeeze together in the benches that Shinji and the other Visored had managed to scrounge from a nearby stadium.

“Aizen,” Ichigo said. “I don’t want to do this here.”

“An impertinent suggestion,” the god of butterflies answered.

“Saw that comin’,” Gin quipped.

“Shh!” Rangiku scolded.

“Only someone who has the power to give me a challenge has the right to say that,” the megalomaniac moth-man continued.

“I don’t know about you, but all I’m hearing is ‘blah-blah-blah’,” Renji complained.

“SHH!” This time the shushing came from Rukia.

“Don’t worry, Kurosaki Ichigo. You will not do any harm to Karakura-!!!”

And that’s when Ichigo’s palm connected with Aizen’s face, silencing the fluttery deity as the heaven piercer dragged him away.

A crowd of cheers came from the spectators. Even Yamamoto let out a satisfied chuckle and Byakuya almost seemed to smirk.

Rangiku held up a sign with a “10” on it. Soon, some of the other spectators followed suit, and Ikkaku took it up to the next level by putting up a scorecard displaying “11.”

“Most beautifully done,” Yumichika praised as he held up his “15” card.

* * *

**AO3 ~~Rant~~ Commentary:** Seriously, that glare Hinamori gives her guard when she escapes her cell in the Soul Society arc is friggin' creepy.

Other than retreading canon grounds too often, my other biggest weakness of this story was not doing more with Tōshirō, how he grew into the individual we met him as in this timeline, and what was it like with him serving Aizen instead of Gin. At the time I was writing this story, it was deliberate to keep their motivations the same to underline their characters’ similarities, even if I was aware this was not the best option, and I now realize it was more than “a bit” forced to do have it _exactly_ the same, and I no longer feel as justified as I did when I originally wrote this.

And to be honest, alternate ideas of Tōshirō’s plotline didn’t occur to me until I was virtually finished with the story, and I didn’t want to bother going back and doing more when I was just at the finish line.

For example, I originally thought about Hitsugaya’s grandmother dying due to Tōshirō’s emerging reiatsu, as a consequence of never meeting Rangiku, but I admit, I didn’t have the heart to be so cruel to him. But in hindsight, it might have better from a story-writing perspective to do so, to show that there are both positive AND negative consequences of this timeline. I could have had it so that Tōshirō doesn’t realize immediately his grandmother’s cause of death, and it’s not until he attends the Academy (motivated by wanting to have the ability to spend more time with his remaining family Hinamori) that he starts to connect the dots between his growing reiatsu and her death. This guilt could lead to him being more determined to protect Hinamori, and persuading him to join the Fifth, and make it so that he’s an easier mark to be manipulated and then recruited by Aizen, and make his loyalty more genuine… making his betrayal of Aizen more of a last-minute conversion as Tōshirō realizes that following him won’t guarantee Hinamori’s safety anymore.

Going off that, there could have been an alternate plot direction where instead of leaving Hinamori behind in Soul Society, Tōshirō decides to take her with him to Hueco Mundo on the logic that she would be safer as a guest/prisoner in Las Noches than a warrior on the enemy’s side of the war. This could have lead to Hinamori struggling with the decision to join her dear friend Tōshirō and her captain Aizen, or to remain loyal to the Gotei 13; it could have also been a great dynamic as Hinamori calls Tōshirō on his decisions, and the extremes he’s willing to go in order to ensure her safety. These debates could be influential in Tōshirō’s eventual betrayal of Aizen.

AARGH, why couldn’t I have had these ideas seven years ago?!

And something that was only pointed out to me by Noiram was that since Hinamori was indeed the victim, I should have portrayed her as having less reiatsu than in canon. Another reason why I should have explored alternate options to why Hitsugaya would join Aizen.

For those who thought it was OoC of Hitsugaya to seek out Aizen like Gin did, I hope the scene revealing that Aizen caught him spying on him made it more palatable. Whereas Gin succeeds in sneaking around and seeing Aizen who he truly is, getting away, and takes the initiative to find a way to infiltrate Aizen’s ranks to discover his weakness, Hitsugaya here was caught by Aizen, leaving him with little choice than to look like he was interested in joining Aizen, or else be immediately struck down to eliminate witnesses.

Funny enough, it wasn’t until my discussions with FETHJJ here on AO3 that the idea was brought up that since Aizen missed out on Rangiku’s soul, and her being stronger than the average Rukongai resident (especially since one of the light novels revealed that she held part of the Soul King), it would delay Aizen’s progress with the Hogyoku, and offer more rationale as to why he would be working on it long enough for Hinamori to be a victim. I denied it at the time, but later on I was like, “Hmm, wait a minute, that actually makes sense…”

On the other hand, it was during this uploading of my story to AO3 that I realized a continuity error, one I’m surprised no one called me out on before, one I’m embarrassed _I_ never spotted before. In canon, Tōshirō’s reiatsu only started to manifest and grow after Hinamori left for the Academy. If Hinamori is the victim instead of Rangiku, it would take place before she became a shinigami, and therefore before Tōshirō’s power grew significant enough to endanger his grandmother’s health.

Not to mention that earlier in the story, Hinamori implies that like in canon, she joined up first, and Tōshirō didn’t become a shinigami until later. This chapter more indicates that they both joined the Academy at about the same time. While Tōshirō starting his career earlier would contribute to the reason why he’s more powerful than in canon, it would also mean that since he graduated in one year, he would have been a full-fledged shinigami five years before Momo was.

For someone who is normally very OCD and meticulous about their continuity, I _really_ dropped the ball on this.

So, yeah, overall, those who have criticized my handling of Hitsugaya in this story, I will now fully admit, they’re right. There were alternatives I could have explored while still underlining the theme of the parallels between him and Gin. While this was always intended to be a Gin-centric fic, the fact that Tōshirō was changed by this alternate timeline meant that a deeper exploration of the how’s and why’s were warranted, but not carried out as well as they should have been.

Still, there are a couple things I did with Tōshirō that I think still stand the test of time. One being his interactions with Hinamori, and the other being the method of his attempted assassination of Aizen, especially the latter’s irony of someone telling Aizen to “shatter.”

On a lighter note, one scene I do NOT regret rehashing at all is the one where Ichigo Face-Palms Aizen as a long, long, _long_ overdue Shut Up. It’s funny when you realize this scene is prescient of “Avengers,” when Hulk smashed Loki, only Aizen is more arrogant, less sympathetic, and we had to put up with him running his mouth for _years_.

Well, only one more chapter to go, so I hope that despite the way this one ended, you’ll stick around for the epilogue!

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to Noiram ARDA for the comment.


	16. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War is over, time for reminiscing and bonding sessions.

**Originally published on Fanfiction.net: 12/31/2013**

* * *

The Winter War was over, and Gin was very happy.

While the Gotei 13 had suffered heavy casualties, there had been no actual fatalities. Unohana had taken care of most of the injuries, and whatever was beyond her power (such as restoring lost limbs) was handed over (pun intended) to Orihime. Except for Yamamoto, who had declined to have the girl bring his left arm back (for some reason). With that sole exception, everyone was back in one piece.

The only guy who had suffered long-term consequences from combat action in the Winter War was the man who had been instrumental in winning it: Kurosaki Ichigo. From what Gin had heard, the human had used some über-powerful technique that would eventually cost him his shinigami powers. Right now, he was residing in the Kuchiki mansion in a coma, and no one was sure as to when he would wake up.

Gin heard footsteps coming up behind him, and was mildly surprised when he recognized the identity of the person.

“Whatcha doin’ here, Rukia-chan?” Gin asked.

“I wanted to speak with you, Ichimaru-taichō,” she answered.

“What ‘bout?”

She hesitated for a moment, as if doubting her actions. Gin simply waited patiently for the girl to summon her courage. He was pleased when it only took a few moments for her to finally speak, “I’ve thought about what you said; about how I survived as a baby in the Rukongai.”

“Oh? Wha’d ya come up with?”

“It’s just some speculation,” she ventured, “but I think that what happened was that someone just happened to wander by where I lay and see a helpless baby. This someone would be used to the hard life of the Rukongai, and felt that if one could not take care of themselves, then they did not deserve to live. But for whatever reason, be it a small piece of mercy, or a desire to give me at least a chance at life, this someone decided to take me under their wing. And for a while, I was taken care of. But eventually, my savior chose to part with me. Once again, I can only guess the reasons; they grew tired of taking care of a baby, or they felt that I was old enough to make it out on my own, or we were separated by accident, I don’t know.

“But as I said before, it’s just speculation.”

“Interestin’ theory,” Ichimaru remarked. “A lotta people would call it a bit outlandish, though.”

“You are not most people.”

“True,” he agreed. “I can still spot a few errors in this theory of yers, but fer argument’s sake, let’s say yer right. Whatcha gonna do if ya ever meet this someone, yer mystery rescuer? Ya gonna yell at ‘em fer abandonin’ ya like yer sister did?”

“No,” she answered. “I won’t pretend to understand their reasoning, but they would have my thanks, for saving my life. After all, if that someone had decided to keep me, I may not have met Renji; I may not have become a shinigami; I might not have ever been found by Nii-sama. But it is pointless to go over what might have been.”

“Also true. Still, don’tcha think the odds of meetin’ this someone are pretty low?”

Rukia was quiet for a few moments. “I believe they are the same odds as being found and adopted by the husband of the sister I did not know I had.”

“Sounds like good odds then, don’t it?”

“Yes.”

Having spoken her piece, the petite noble turned to depart. The fox also resumed his prior direction.

“Ichimaru Gin.”

The captain turned his head to Rukia, who had stopped once more, and was looking at him over her shoulder.

“Thank you.”

His only response was to grace her with a smile. It wasn’t his usual Creepy Smile or Mischievous Smirk; the corners were too soft to be defined as such. Nor was this a Happy Grin, something more benevolent but it was not quite as large. What Rukia saw now was a plain, affectionate smile.

Her eyes lit up at the sight, and her lips parted in surprise. For a moment, it seemed like she didn’t know how to respond, but in an action that seemed more instinctual than anything else, Rukia closed her mouth and gave a small, gentle smile in return.

“Give my regards to Ichigo when he wakes up,” he said.

Rukia was still mildly dazzled by his heartwarming smile, and so could only nod in acknowledgement before she left.

After a moment, Gin called out, “Ya can come out now.”

Rangiku appeared at his side.

“So ya heard,” he noted.

She nodded. “Sorry if I wasn’t supposed to know.”

“It was important fer her to figure it out fer herself,” Gin shrugged. “After she did, I would’ve filled ya in on it. It’s up to her now as to how many other people know.”

“So I finally learn your deepest and darkest secret,” she smirked. “You’re actually a knight in silver armor coming to save all the damsels in distress.”

“Two girls ain’t a trend.”

“At least four by my count.”

“Eh?” His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Nanao-chan and Hinamori,” Rangiku explained. “True, you didn’t do something as dramatic as save their lives, but you’ve helped them a lot, and you’ve become important to them.”

“I can understand Nanao-chan, but are ya sure ‘bout Hinamori-chan? She’s more yer friend than mine, ain’t she?” Gin asked, his head cocked slightly to the side in curiosity. He was usually pretty accurate when it came to discerning how people felt about him, but perhaps he was a little off this time. In some ways, his wife was still more perceptive about people than he was, so he listened to her words with an open mind.

“Yes, she is, but you’ve still made a good impact on her life,” she assented. “You should’ve seen her fight that Espada. First of all, she made a compound kidō net that actually managed to hurt her, even incomplete.”

“Not bad,” Gin nodded. “But I didn’t give her any kidō lessons.”

“I’m not finished,” Rangiku told him, and then continued, “She _also_ managed to perform a Kurohitsugi.”

“So that really was her,” he mused. “I thought I felt a whopper of a spell bein’ thrown, an’ I thought it was lil’ Hinamori-chan. I’m guessin’ that’s the reason she wasn’t there fer the rest o’ the battle?”

“Yes, she passed out after casting it,” she nodded. “But you’re missing the point: I’d wager that the reason she got so strong was because of those weeks training with you.”

“She had help from you an’ Kira.”

“Gin, face facts,” Rangiku said patiently. “I haven’t wanted to tell this before, because I was afraid it might go to your head, but I think it’s something you should know. You are important to more people than just me. You have friends, real friends, and you even have admirers.” She gave a mischievous little smirk. “You should see all the recruits who join our division because of your reputation as a brilliant trickster. The boys come because they want to be like you. The girls come for the same reason, but also… well, let’s just say I’m glad you’re a faithful husband.”

She paused to let him think over her words, and ponder he did.

Gin had already mused over some of the topics Rangiku had just told him, but still the extent of his influence surprised him somewhat. Even though he was a captain, his instincts told him it was more than just his white haori that got him these friends and fans, just as Rangiku had said.

And it was not limited to the Third Division.

Kyōraku had been a mentor to Gin when he was in the Eighth, and by association he had spent quite a lot of time in Ukitake’s company as well. The fox was pretty sure that Yamamoto had a favorable opinion of him, due to being an apprentice and lieutenant of Kyōraku. Nanao knew him almost as well as Rangiku and Kyōraku did, since they had known each other since she was a kid. He had gotten along with Kaien back in the day, not only because he was Ukitake’s lieutenant, but also because he was pretty much the only other married guy in the Gotei 13 who would knew how to have fun. Kira had taken Gin’s lessons on combat to heart in the same way Gin had once learned from Kyōraku. He had gotten a little closer with Hinamori during their weeks of training. And now, it seemed that Rukia had finally accepted him in her heart, too.

Gin paused as an epiphany hit him.

What a manipulative, sneaky, _wonderful_ woman he had married! All this time when he had been training her and preparing her for the day when he might not come back home, she had been doing the same to him, in her own way. While he was training her to get stronger, _she_ in turn trained _him_ to connect more with other people. With the exception of Rukia, Rangiku had been responsible for getting him closer to his fellow shinigami so bonds of friendship would form.

For the second time in less than an hour, Gin’s smile turned kind. Rangiku was more experienced with that sight than Rukia was, but the effect was no less. Her lips lifted upward in reply, and a lovely blush crossed her cheeks.

“Thanks, Rangiku,” he told her.

“For what?” she asked.

“Yer right, I guess I do have a family now. But I wouldn’t have gotten it if ya weren’t here to teach me.”

“Since you saved my life, and taught me how to keep myself from being killed, I thought it only fair to return the favor in some way,” Rangiku shrugged warmly.

“Ya got Rukia-chan to thank as much as me.”

“Oh? How so?”

“If I had decided not to save her, I probably would’ve left ya to die.”

Rangiku looked down, and Gin knew she was thinking. He stayed quiet and let her complete her thought process, and take the initiative in the next line of conversation.

His patience was rewarded when she took his hands in hers and spoke tenderly, “You’re a good husband. You’re a good captain. Promise me you won’t ever forget that.”

“Whatcha mean?” he tilted his head in curiosity.

“I know you, Gin. I know how easily you could slip down the dark path and become a monster. But you haven’t. I know that most of the good you’ve done has been for my sake, but that’s not entirely true. Rukia has proven that you don’t always need me to make the right choice. So I want you to remember that if I die before you, that you will never stop being a good man.”

Gin wanted to contradict her, to assure her that she would be outliving him, but he knew better than to make his wife a promise if he didn’t know he could keep it. In their line of work, anything could happen. Whether it was due to injury in battle or tragic accident or unfortunate illness, the possibility existed that he could become a widower. And Rangiku knew just as well as him that if that happened, he would survive. What she wanted from him was an oath that he would not lose his soul with her death.

“I promise,” Gin swore to her. “On one condition: if I die before ya, then you’ll continue to live happily.”

He knew that if he died, Rangiku would be devastated. What he wanted was assurance from her that she would not only survive, but also to not let his passing from preventing her enjoying the life she still had.

“I promise,” she gave her word.

Oaths given, Gin pulled her into a warm hug.

“I love ya,” he whispered in her ear.

Rangiku smiled. He rarely said those words, preferring to let his actions speak for him, but he always meant them.

“I love you, too.”

After a comfortably long time in each others’ arms, they reluctantly pulled apart and started to walk to their respective destinations. They both still had to perform their duties, after all. There was a captains’ meeting beginning shortly, and Rangiku needed to fill out some paperwork.

“I noticed ya decided to keep yer look,” Gin commented to his wife as they strolled through the Seireitei. Their paths didn’t need to diverge quite yet.

Rangiku gingerly touched the scars on her face, and her lips twitched. “I actually almost forgot about them,” she admitted. “Since my injuries were light compared to a lot of other people, I didn’t think it right to ask Orihime-chan to fix my face after she had done so much work healing more serious wounds.”

“So, ya gonna ask her when she’s not so busy?”

Rangiku was quiet for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think I’ll bother.”

“So, what changed yer mind?”

“I had these scars throughout that entire battle in Karakura Town, but I completely forgot they were there,” she explained. “I hate to admit it, but I think you’re right about them.”

“I’m glad,” Gin said. “With scars or without ‘em, yer still the most beautiful woman in any world.”

“Yes, I suppose I am,” Rangiku sighed with mock resignation. “But it’s a burden I must bear.”

“An’ ya were worried ‘bout stuff goin’ to _my_ head?” Gin snickered.

“ _What_ was that you said?”

Instead of responding verbally, Gin pulled Rangiku into a kiss. After a surprised “Mmm!” she returned the gesture.

At last he pulled away and whispered, “See ya later,” then vanished.

Rangiku blinked and realized that they were at the junction where they had to separate, and he had kept her from noticing this. It was quite irksome that even after all this time and how well she knew him, Gin could still surprise her like this. Then again, considering that he knew her as well as she knew him, perhaps it made sense that he could still find ways to catch her off guard.

“Gin, I _will_ get you back for this later,” Rangiku swore out loud, not sure if he could still hear her or not. Despite the growl in her voice, she couldn’t banish the satisfied smile on her face.

* * *

Hinamori moaned lightly as she began her journey out of the darkness.

Blinking to let her eyes adjust to the new light, she took in her surroundings. After a moment of dull thinking, she recognized it as a room in the Fourth Division.

“Hinamori-kun?”

Slowly, she turned her head and saw Kira sitting in a chair next to the wall.

“Kira-kun?” she said with a slight slur to her words.

“I’m glad you’re awake,” he smiled. “We’ve been worried about you.”

“Worried…” Hinamori asked, and that’s when memories of the last time she was awake came rushing back to her, making her suddenly sit up in bed. “Tōshirō!”

“Hinamori-kun! Please take it easy! You’re still recovering your reiatsu!” Kira warned as he got up to gently push his friend back down to the bed.

“Where’s Tōshirō?” she asked as she returned to her horizontal position.

Her memories came back in full force then, as she remembered taking the hit meant for Tōshirō. Even though Hinamori knew that it would not stop Aizen from killing him, she just _had_ to do something to save him! But she knew there had been nothing else to stop Aizen from finishing him as soon as he killed her.

“Tōshirō’s dead.”

Once she had stated it out loud, the reality of it crashed down on her and she burst into sobs. Distantly, she could feel Kira holding her and saying her name, but she did not respond. It was like losing Aizen all over again; no, it was worse this time. Aizen-taichō had died, and miraculously came back only to stab her and the rest of Soul Society in the back. This time, Aizen had killed Tōshirō just as she found out the truth about how her old friend felt, about the real reason why he had worked for Aizen. It just wasn’t _fair!_

Wait, was Kira _shaking_ her?

Forcing herself back into reality, Hinamori, still emotionally raw from her breakdown, snapped, “What?”

Unfazed by her tone, Kira simply said, “He’s alive.”

All higher thought processes came to a complete and utter halt in Hinamori’s brain. “What?” she asked cautiously as soon as her brain rebooted.

“Hitsugaya is alive,” he repeated. “Kurosaki Ichigo managed to arrive in time to prevent Aizen from landing the killing blow. Aizen is- Hinamori-kun, stop!”

“Where is Tōshirō?!” she cried, as she redoubled her efforts to get out of bed again.

“You won’t be able to see him if you don’t take it easy and lie down,” Kira pleaded as he pushed her back down.

Reluctantly, she followed his advice and leaned back into a reclining position.

“Tōshirō’s alive!” she said to herself giddily, but then horror crept into her thoughts again. “This isn’t good!”

“Hinamori-kun…?” Kira asked in confusion, his train of thought not working on the same track as hers.

“Tōshirō’s alive, but everyone thinks he’s a traitor, but he really isn’t!” she ranted. “He tried to kill Aizen because of _me_! He only joined Aizen so he could find out a way to beat the Complete Hypnosis! But now they’re going to execute him for treason! I have to rescue him!”

“Hinamori-kun!” her blond friend said in exasperation as he once again moved to keep the patient in her cot.

“Don’t tell me to settle down! If Tōshirō’s going to be killed, then I have bigger things to worry about than my reiatsu levels!”

“He’s not going to be executed!”

That finally accomplished Kira’s goal, and Hinamori ceased her struggling and looked at him. “What?”

“Hitsugaya had been found next to your body with evidence of using his own life force to heal your wounds. The Gotei 13 took him into custody, and with help from both Unohana-taichō and Inoue-san, managed to heal his injuries. After he woke up from his wounds, he was put on trial, and he told the Central Forty-Six what he apparently told you. Spies from the Second Division witnessed Hitsugaya attempting to kill Aizen. Kurosaki Ichigo said he arrived in time to see you try to save Hitsugaya, and prevent Aizen from killing him, so the Central Forty-Six handed the issue of his punishment over to Yamamoto-sōtaichō. Right now, the captains are in a meeting to discuss what will happen to him.”

* * *

Yamamoto knew Zaraki would be late to the captain’s meeting, but he was still not happy about it. If past experiences were anything to go by, Yamamoto estimated that the directionally-challenged captain would arrive in about five minutes. Fifteen if he was using his Yachiru Compass. This gave the old general time to ponder the situation that had fallen into his lap.

The Central Forty-Six had been surprisingly hesitant to condemn Hitsugaya Tōshirō for treason.

Then again, perhaps it was not so surprising. The judges were very mindful of the fate of their predecessors, and the events surrounding their decisions. The new Central Forty-Six remembered how the order to execute Kuchiki Rukia led to a rebellion among some of their most powerful officers in the Gotei 13. Even though those orders turned out to be false, the newly instated legislators were taking more care to consider how the captains would react to their decisions. While the captains had always possessed the potential power to overrule the decisions of the Central Forty-Six, they had never acted on it before. This change in the balance of power meant that these so-called judges and wise men no longer had unquestionable authority in Soul Society.

They were not afraid to deal their punishments on Aizen, because the Central Forty-Six knew that most people in the Gotei 13 could think of far worse fates to wish on the enemy of the Seireitei. For example, one particularly vicious suggestion was to give Aizen to Kurotsuchi to experiment on. This idea was quickly shot down when a judge asked the crucial question: “Do we really want _Kurotsuchi-taichō_ to have any chance of attaining Aizen’s power?” Needless to say, that idea was scrapped, but there were plenty of other, more traditional fates to bestow upon the mastermind traitor. A popular idea was to execute him via the Sōkyoku, a fate that one judge noted to being an ironic end. However, with the knowledge that Aizen was still immortal despite no longer being the master of the Hōgyoku, a death sentence was unfortunately out of the question. In the end, the Central Forty-Six decided that twenty thousand years in isolation was the best punishment they could pronounce upon the criminal.

Hitsugaya Tōshirō, on the other hand, was a more complicated matter. While there were few people who felt personal attachment to the cold former captain, Hitsugaya had attempted to kill Aizen. That action alone kept the young man from being executed. The Central Forty-Six knew that the more personal details of his actions would most certainly endear this boy to the general populace of the Seireitei. And the general populace _did_ know, thanks to the Shinigami Women’s Association.

And if four captains and their lieutenants would rise against their ruling body to save an unseated officer, then what would happen if that same government condemned a former captain who had acted to avenge a friend and save Soul Society?

So, being the _generous_ politicians they were, the Central Forty-Six decided to reduce Hitsugaya’s charge from treason to acting without orders and dereliction of duty, and let Yamamoto take care of punishing him. That way, if another uprising among the captains did occur, it would be focused on their commander, not the judges. And if Hitsugaya was cleared, then they would eagerly embrace the image that they were more benevolent and understanding than their predecessors.

Yamamoto gave an inward sigh; it was just as well. This was an affair that would be best solved by the military, anyway.

And there was Zaraki, right on time with Yamamoto’s non-Yachiru estimate.

The Captain-Commander noted with ire that Zaraki, like Kuchiki and Kyōraku, was lacking his haori. He made a mental note to have a very stern talk with those three after the current meeting was done.

As soon as the Eleventh Division captain had taken his place in the lineup, Yamamoto tapped his cane to the floorboards, announcing the commencement of the captains’ meeting.

“The primary objective of this meeting is to decide whether or not Hitsugaya Tōshirō should be reinstated as captain of the Tenth Division,” Yamamoto announced. “Due to his attempt to kill Aizen Sōsuke, the Central Forty-Six changed Hitsugaya Tōshirō’s charge from treason to dereliction of duty and acting without orders. They have left his punishment and status in the Gotei 13 to me. In accordance with one of the requirement tests for captaincy, I have decided that the reinstatement of Hitsugaya Tōshirō will be decided by a vote from the captains. Eight affirmatives will be required to allow him to regain his position.”

* * *

Coyote Starrk sighed as he stopped in front of the massive gates of Las Noches. He had seen on his approach here that there were several columns of smoke rising from the roof, and that there were numerous holes in the walls as well. The shinigami had done a number on the place.

At least they were decent enough to heal his wounds and let him go after the battle with Aizen. Well, he mostly had that human girl, Inoue, to thank for that. He could tell from the shinigami’s faces that they were not happy with her healing him. But they didn’t make any move to stop her, nor do anything to hinder their departure after she had finished. It seemed that the shinigami captains honored the temporary alliance to its fullest extent. Still, Starrk knew that the next time they met, it would be as foes.

But the thing he was grateful for the most was the fact that Lilynette was still with him. He was carrying her on his back, her head slumped forward as she napped on his shoulder.

When Starrk had first woken up underneath the orange glow of Inoue’s dome, he saw that he had left his Resurreccion, and that Lilynette was curled up by his side. He had taken some mild enjoyment out of their reversed positions, trying to wake her up, but she had only managed to stay conscious long enough to learn of their victory and survival, before zonking out again. He had never seen her so lethargic, and was concerned for her health. Fortunately, a brief check-up by Unohana revealed that it was just a result of the two of them losing so much reiatsu, and all she needed was rest.

So now they were back in Hueco Mundo, under the mutual decision to seek out any surviving Arrancar and see if they wanted to stay together. Starrk was not overly optimistic about this mission, but they had to try, and if it meant more companions, the result would be worth it.

After a _long_ while of strolling through the _long_ corridors of Las Noches (why did Aizen feel the need to make this place so _big?_ ), Starrk finally picked up on the reiatsu of an Espada-class individual.

“Lilynette,” he nudged his passenger. “We’ve got a live one.”

The girl moaned as she returned to the land of the conscious.

“Who’s it?” she mumbled.

“It’s not one of the regular Espada, but it’s still pretty strong,” Starrk answered. He winced as he took a step into what seemed like direct sunlight. He knew that it was fake, but the brightness was definitely real. “It’s not too far, just stay awake.”

“I will!” Lilynette snapped, the familiar feistiness returning to her voice.

A couple minutes later, after Starrk’s eyes adjusted to the new luminosity of their environment, he was able to better tell the appearance of the first survivor. Once he did, he gave a subdued sweatdrop, but he continued walking. Starrk knew Lilynette had seen the Arrancar when she burst out into giggles.

The man ahead was sitting down on the ground, his chin resting thoughtfully on his hand as he stared at nothing in particular. The reason for Lilynette’s fit of amusement was his _ridiculous_ hairstyle. It was a large, poofy, red afro rivaling if not exceeding the diameter of Nnoitra’s equally ridiculous hood. Upon hearing the high-pitched chortles, he turned towards the disturbance. The man recognized the approaching individual with wide eyes and leapt to his feet.

“Starrk-sama!” he shouted excitedly. “You survived! How? I thought that the shinigami won!”

“They did,” the former Primera answered. “How much do you know?”

“Only that we lost.”

“Baraggan and Halibel are dead, and so are all their Fraccion,” Starrk informed him, and Lilynette abruptly stopped her giggles. “After they were killed, Aizen decided he didn’t want Arrancar anymore, and tried to kill me.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“So we decided to help the shinigami fight Aizen,” the lupine Hollow continued. “He still thrashed us all. It was the Kurosaki kid who beat him. That girl Aizen captured, Inoue, healed us, and the shinigami let us go.”

The other man was still absorbing the news of their former master’s betrayal.

“We offered everything for him…” he growled.

“Apparently, it wasn’t enough,” Starrk shrugged. “So, anyone else still alive here?”

“I think the only other Espada alive is Grimmjow-sama,” the lone warrior answered.

“You know where he is?”

“I remember the direction his battle with Kurosaki was.”

“Lead the way.”

“Starrk-sama?”

“We just lost a war,” the ex-Primera explained. “We’ve got nowhere else to go. I figure we gather who all still alive and stick together. If you don’t want to do that, then just point me in Grimmjow’s direction and do what you want.”

The Hollow appeared to think about his superior’s words for a moment, and finally answered, “I’ll follow you, Starrk-sama.”

“’Kay. What’s your name?”

“Gantenbainne Mosqueda. I was one of the Privaron Espada.”

“What is _with_ that hair?!” Lilynette demanded, finally speaking up after an unusual length of silence from her.

That initiated a rather voluminous discussion on style and fashion between the two of them, but as they walked towards where Grimmjow probably was, Starrk couldn’t help but feel content that at least he was not alone.

* * *

No one was more surprised than Tōshirō that he had actually survived Aizen’s attack and his subsequent sacrifice of reiatsu to preserve Hinamori’s life. Unohana had told him that if Hinamori and Kurosaki had not intervened, he probably would have died at Aizen’s next stroke. Despite reassurances that his childhood friend was going to make a full recovery, he still could not discard the guilt he felt about her stepping between him and Aizen. He had sworn to protect her, and he had failed in so many ways. And then there was the startling but not unwelcome news that the Central Forty-Six were going to let Yamamoto and the rest of the captains decide his fate, instead of just executing him for treason.

Of course, that led him to his current predicament: standing between the two lines of captains as they debated what to do with him.

Tōshirō was not optimistic on his chances. He knew he had not endeared himself to any of the captains with his cold, aloof personality. It had been necessary at the time; the fewer attachments he had to Soul Society, the easier it would be to keep close to Aizen.

And of course that led to another line of self-doubting thoughts. Tōshirō could not help but wonder if he ever really had a chance to kill Aizen. Should he have struck earlier, when the monster did not have the protection of the Hōgyoku? But he never saw an opening that would allow him to touch Kyōka Suigetsu and make a successful strike. Should he have tried being more active in sabotaging Aizen’s attempts? The mastermind would have figured it out, and altered his plans accordingly, if not kill him in response. Should he have tried to warn the Seireitei? They wouldn’t have listened. Should he have never tried to avenge Hinamori at all? Unacceptable.

But was it? Hinamori told him that she would have preferred him with her and her life in danger to her being safe and separated from him. Even when he tried to protect her by keeping his distance, she still got hurt. Was the wiser course of action staying close to her, prioritizing her personal safety over killing Aizen? Did his reason for revenge against Aizen come out of selfish anger instead of the desire to protect Hinamori?

“Well, if no one else wants to go first, I say we let Hitsugaya in again,” Ichimaru interrupted the thoughts of the young man in question. “I bet I would’ve done the same thing in his place.”

The greater surprise there was that Tōshirō was _not_ surprised at the fox’s choice. Ichimaru was one of the few people who had not been put off by his icy personality, probably due to his own innate creepiness canceling the effect. And Ichimaru’s words struck a chord within him. The captain of the Third approved of his actions. Even though Tōshirō failed in his efforts, Ichimaru considered his decisions acceptable, even laudable. Of course, considering this was _Ichimaru_ , the worth of that opinion was questionable, but it still counted.

“I will also cast an ‘aye,’” Komamura agreed. “Just before Tōsen died, he realized the error of his ways. But because he saw the light, he was murdered by Aizen. Let Hitsugaya have the second chance denied to Tōsen.”

Silence reigned for a few moments as the other captains continued to weigh their decision.

“I vote yes,” Kuchiki broke the silence simply, and offered no explanation for his decision, despite the inquisitive stares from some of his peers. Those who knew of the noble’s history would realize that he sympathized with someone who broke the rules for a loved one.

Once again, the quiet began a short reign over the immediate vicinity. This one was far shorter than the previous, though.

“A guy who attempts the impossible for the girl he loves? How could I say ‘no’ to that?” Kyōraku chuckled, being the one to speak up this time. “Let him back in.”

“I think Hitsugaya-kun should be given a second chance,” Ukitake said.

“I agree with Ukitake-taichō,” Unohana concurred. “I vote to let him become captain again.”

Another pause broke out, this one longer than the last, and Hitsugaya wondered if anyone else was going to speak up. His internal question was answered, but from an unexpected source.

“I vote that Hitsugaya be reinstated to his former position,” Soifon declared. Upon noticing the surprised looks some of her peers gave her, she explained, “While he acted against other members of the Gotei 13 in his efforts, Hitsugaya’s actions and patience demonstrate skills that would be the envy of many of my Onmitsukidō. However, I still strongly advocate harsh punishment before and/or during his return to captaincy.”

Throughout all this, Tōshirō could barely restrain his surprise at the support he was getting from his fellow captains. He only had seven votes, but it was still seven more votes than he expected to have. He knew that no one else would vote him in; Yamamoto was too much of a stickler for the rules, Zaraki didn’t care for anything but fighting, and Kurotsuchi was apathetic to everything not related to his research.

Idly, Tōshirō wondered what punishment they would lay on him, and if they would let him remain in the Gotei 13, or keep him in the Maggot’s Nest for the rest of his life. And if they allowed him to stay a shinigami, would they let him retake the captaincy test again later on?

“Yes.”

This time, the young man could not contain his surprise. While he started to wonder about his punishment, he had not heard who cast the last vote. 

“What?” he blurted, and _almost_ blushed in embarrassment at his outburst.

“Did you not hear me, young pup?” Yamamoto said. “I said ‘yes.’ Zaraki-taichō, Kurotsuchi-taichō, your votes will not deny Hitsugaya Tōshirō captaincy, but do you two wish to make any statements?”

“Nah,” Zaraki answered indifferently. “Let the kid in if he wants to come back.”

“It’s no concern of mine what happens to him,” Kurotsuchi remarked, a position which surprised no one.

Yamamoto tapped his cane firmly to the floorboards.

“Hitsugaya Tōshirō, it has been decided by the captains of the Gotei 13 that you be restored to your former rank of Captain,” Yamamoto declared. “However, because of your actions in aiding Aizen against Soul Society, even while attempting to kill him, there will be stipulations.

“One: you will remain under house arrest for the next five years, barring emergency situations. During this timeframe, you will also have your reiatsu will be sealed to one-fifth of your power. This seal will be removed once a month to prevent a total loss of your power.

“Two: your salary will be cut in half for the next ten years.

“And three: there will be quarterly personal interviews done by myself and Unohana-taichō to appraise your behavior for the next five years. Do you understand these conditions and submit willingly to them?”

“I do,” the newly reinstated captain agreed.

“Good,” said Yamamoto, and tapped his cane to the ground once more. “This meeting is adjourned. Your haori will be delivered to your quarters in the Tenth Division, Hitsugaya Tōshirō-taichō.”

The two lines on either side of Tōshirō began to disperse as each captain chose their own course of action. Soifon and Kurotsuchi left immediately, their presence no longer required. Kyōraku, Ukitake, and Ichimaru converged on each other and began idle chatter. Komamura passed by Tōshirō long enough to say, “Welcome back,” before leaving as well. As usual, Yamamoto remained where he stood, and he would keep that position until all the other captains had departed.

“Kuchiki-taichō, Kyōraku-taichō, and Zaraki-taichō,” Yamamoto intoned. “You three will remain after the other captains have left.”

While those three individuals acknowledged their superior’s command, Unohana approached Tōshirō and kindly asked, “Would you like to visit Hinamori-kun?”

“Am I allowed?” he inquired.

“Yamamoto-sōtaichō, do you have any objections to letting Hitsugaya-taichō visit Hinamori-kun before taking him to his quarters?”

“No.”

“You see?” Unohana said. “Now, would you like to visit Hinamori-kun?”

“Of course,” Tōshirō replied, and a careful eye might have noticed how his lips twitched upward for a brief moment.

* * *

After giving three captains a heavy scolding on the proper care of haori, Yamamoto decided to have tea with his lieutenant. It was _supposed_ to be relaxing, but considering what Chōjirō’s first topic of conversation was…

“You’re getting soft in your old age, Eijisai-dono,” the old fencer commented amiably as he sipped from his teacup.

“What are you talking about?” the eldest captain replied irritably. He had long given up on convincing his faithful lieutenant to stop calling him that nickname, but that did not mean he liked it. At least his impudent friend showed enough restraint to only call him that in private.

The lieutenant took another sip from his Earl Grey before answering. “You did not have to vote in Hitsugaya’s favor.”

“We have three vacant positions open,” Yamamoto replied after taking a drink from his own cup of jasmine (which was _far_ superior to any of those rubbish Western blends, in his opinion). “It would be foolish to not even consider his return. Hitsugaya-taichō has power and respect from his subordinates. And his attempted assassination of Aizen is enough evidence to show that his loyalty lies with us and not against us.”

“You know just as well as I do that Hitsugaya-taichō’s loyalties lie not with us, but with Hinamori-fukutaichō,” Chōjirō said.

“And considering that she is loyal to the Gotei 13, that will not be a problem,” he rebutted.

“Her loyalty did not ensure his before. Why are you so certain this time?”

Yamamoto sighed. “Perhaps you’re right, and I’m starting to get soft. Hitsugaya-taichō is young enough that I believe he would take advantage of this second chance. Besides, we have recruited worse in our time.”

“Quite true.”

A short comfortable silence emerged as the two old friends sipped their preferred flavors of tea.

“Now that the war is over, are you ready to arrange that long overdue sparring match?” Chōjirō broached the silence first.

Few could spot it, but Yamamoto grinned underneath his impressive moustache, and responded, “Indeed I am.”

“Where?”

The ancient warrior pondered for a good while before answering, “Now that we have the technology to create a Garganta, we will have our match in Hueco Mundo. It is the only world where we can fight each other without worry of collateral damage.”

* * *

“Tōshirō’s on trial?!” Hinamori yelped at the news her academy friend had just told her.

“Calm down, Hinamori,” Kira attempted to soothe the agitated girl.

“He’s right, there’s no need to overreact,” a cool voice agreed.

Hinamori and Kira jumped at the new voice and turned towards the doorway to see Unohana and Hitsugaya standing there.

“Kira-kun, I believe there is some paperwork you should pick up for the Tenth Division,” the motherly captain said to the blond lieutenant.

Detecting the unspoken threat in that statement, Kira nodded fervently in agreement.

“I shall help you find them,” Unohana said agreeably, and before Tōshirō and Hinamori knew it, they were alone. They were both unsure what to say, and unwilling to break the silence which had settled on the room.

Very aware of the awkward silence, Tōshirō nervously took the seat Kira had recently vacated.

“Hello, Hinamori,” Tōshirō cleared his throat. “I’m glad to see you’ve recovered _\- ack-_ _Hinamori!”_

The sound of his voice had snapped Hinamori out of her anxiety, and the first conscious decision she took was to grab Tōshirō, yank him close, and wrap him tightly in her arms. And, if she had her way, never let go.

Realizing that it would be quite difficult (and unpleasant) to pry away from her, Tōshirō accepted the inescapable hug with a resigned sigh. A moment later, he decided to reciprocate by gently placing his arms around her.

“I thought you’d died, Shiro-chan,” Hinamori whispered. “I thought I had lost you for good.”

“I was more worried about you,” Tōshirō admitted. “Why did you take the hit for me? You deserved to live more than I did…”

“Shut up you idiot.”

The white-haired teenager blinked at the reprimand.

“I saved you because you’re my best friend, and I had to do _something_ to save you.”

“But I never wanted you to die because of me…”

“Well, consider it payback.”

Tōshirō blinked again at Hinamori’s words.

“You tried to get revenge on Aizen and nearly got yourself killed because of me,” she explained. “So don’t complain when I get myself stabbed trying to save you.”

He wanted to argue the point, but was having trouble coming up with a logical counter. Finally, he resigned himself to the fact that he would not be winning this battle. The story of his life lately…

“Fine,” Tōshirō relented. “Since we’re both alive, I guess it turned out all right. Thank you, Momo.”

They spent the next few minutes holding each other, simply glad that they were both alive and well.

Hinamori pulled away when she felt a familiar source of reiatsu enter the room. She and her friend turned to see that it was Kira, a little unnerved by the tender moment he had interrupted.

“I’m sorry, I’ll come back later,” he coughed uncomfortably.

“It’s okay,” Hinamori assured him.

“What do you need?” Tōshirō asked.

“It’s nothing important, I just wanted to check on something,” the blond lieutenant answered, walking to the night table and picking up a device there. Kira looked at it and an uncharacteristic smirk curved his lips, and then announced, “Hinamori-kun, I win.”

“Eh? What are you talking about?” she asked in confusion. Hitsugaya furrowed his eyebrows in incomprehension as well.

“Kurotsuchi-fukutaichō informed me that whenever Hitsugaya-taichō was alone, the temperature averaged fifteen degrees Celsius,” Kira explained, and then gestured to the device, a thermometer, in his hand. “It is now twenty-five degrees.”

Hinamori’s jaw dropped when she remembered the bet he had made with her that night during the ryoka invasion, and burning heat flooded her face.

“What are you going on about?” Hitsugaya asked with a cocked eyebrow. “Of course it’s always warmer when Hinamori’s around.”

The frank statement caused the girl to blush harder.

“I’m surprised you admit it so freely, captain,” Kira said cautiously.

“What’s to admit? Hinamori does possess a fire-type zanpakutō after all.”

“With no disrespect to Hinamori-kun,” Kira raised the eyebrow not hidden by his bangs, “I’m not sure that her spiritual pressure is enough to cancel out your captain-level emission of cold reiatsu.”

This time, Hitsugaya did not answer, but Kira noticed a slight pink hue brushing his captain’s cheeks. He did not say anything out loud for two reasons: respect for his superior officer, and basic self-preservation.

“Hinamori-kun, I look forward to having some help with my paperwork in the coming week,” Kira said to her.

“Ichimaru-taichō is a bad influence on you,” Hinamori pouted, her cheeks recovering their natural hue but still emitting a warm glow.

“Undoubtedly,” Kira acknowledged without an ounce of repentance in his voice just before stepping out of the room.

The not-quite morose blond actually did not care if Hinamori helped with his paperwork. While the reduced workload and pleasant company was indeed a benefit, the real reason he wanted her over was so the Tenth Division could enjoy normal temperatures for another week.

* * *

“So, I was the first one to actually hurt the guy claimin’ to be a god in the battle,” Gin announced casually as he stood barefoot in a familiar woods. “That fit yer definition of god-killin’ ‘nough?”

“You sound a little snippy today,” Shinsō noted.

“I might be a lil’ on the annoyed side that ya didn’t tell me this _before_ I had to deal with some wannabe-god-killin’,” the captain returned. While the easy-going man’s voice was its usual impish tone, those who knew him would detect a well-hidden layer of irritation.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” the naga said. “Yes, we were unable to kill Aizen at that moment, but it all ended well. He is now defeated, and there were no deaths on our side.”

“No, but more people got hurt than needed be.”

“Well, it’s not like you really care about them,” the snake shrugged again, and then stilled at her wielder’s lack of response. “I don’t believe it; you actually _do_ care.”

“Yep,” he admitted. These were words he would have never spoken aloud in the outer world, save with Rangiku. But here in this conversation in the night, he was free to be open with his thoughts and feelings. Especially considering the talk he had with his wife earlier.

Shinsō stared at him.

“I had known you loved Rangiku,” she whispered. “But I thought that was an anomaly, and that your feelings would never truly reach beyond her. And now… Kyōraku, Nanao, Ukitake, Rukia, Hinamori, Kira, Hitsugaya, and others! I had thought you were only kind to them for Rangiku’s sake, but that’s not true! It’s _you_ who cares about them, too! You’ve actually grown attached to the people of the Gotei 13! You actually consider them friends, even family! When did this happen? _How_ did this happen?”

It was Gin’s turn to shrug. “Jus’ happened that way.”

“But snakes aren’t supposed to feel; having emotions for one woman was miraculous enough. To possess such feelings towards so many people is… or _should_ have been impossible.”

“Well, I ain’t a snake.”

“But we are the same soul, and my appearance is proof enough that we are snakes.”

Gin realized something; well-hidden underneath those protests was fear, perhaps even outright terror, and he knew why.

The general rule was that a shinigami’s strength was directly proportional to how well they understand their zanpakutō. And this was not just referring to its powers; a shinigami should also know their zanpakutō’s personality, and the true relationship they have with each other. Shinsō was afraid that if she did not understand her wielder, then their power would decline, and such a direction would be bad for both of them.

“Yer right,” he smiled at her. “I’m like a snake when I fight; I don’t like straight-up battles, I prefer to strike from hidden places, an’ I can fight without feelin’ any emotions. But when I ain’t fightin’, I’m more like a fox. While foxes can live on their own, they’re also social creatures, an’ like havin’ friends o’ their own. Understand?”

Shinsō’s eyes moved from side to side as she processed his words. “I… think so.”

“An’ also think ‘bout this: yer appearance is proof that we can be a lot like snakes. But it’s also proof that yer not _purely_ snake.”

Her smile returned at that comment, and she conceded his point with a “True.” She gave a measured sigh, and then said, “Perhaps it is time we trade places, and that _I_ learn who _you_ are.”

“Can we start with me learnin’ how to use yer venom?”

Shinsō chuckled. “Of course. You have more than earned it, Gin.”

* * *

“I’m not so sure about this,” Rangiku frowned as she and her husband walked through the Tenth Division’s corridors to the quarters of its captain.

“C’mon, Hitsugaya-taichō needs visitors other than Kira-kun or Hinamori-chan,” Gin argued. “He’s all cooped up in his room all the time, so he needs something to keep from gettin’ bored.”

“Well, you can accomplish _that_ by yourself.”

“But it’ll be a lot more fun if ya help me out. ‘Sides, now that ya know he ain’t as cold as ya thought he was, this’ll be a good chance to turn over a new leaf in yer relationship with him.”

Rangiku suddenly burst out laughing.

“What?” Gin cocked his head to one side.

“I don’t think I’d ever expect this to happen,” she explained over her giggles. “ _You_ trying to convince _me_ to socialize with someone.”

“So is that a ‘yes?’”

“Oh, very well,” she consented with a sigh. “I’ll try to be nice for your sake.”

“Don’t be nice. Be yourself.”

“And what do you mean by _that_ , buster?”

“Nice is bein’ spineless ‘bout pleasin’ people,” Gin explained without a trace of fear. “Yer sincere when yer kind, an’ ya know when to be brutally honest. Yer way better than nice.”

Rangiku smirked. “Smooth, Gin.”

“Why, thank you,” he grinned back, and then noticed Hinamori turning a corner in front of them ahead. “Hey, looky there.”

Rangiku saw her slender peer, and then waved enthusiastically, “Hinamori!”

The girl stopped and turned upon hearing the call, smiling when she saw it was them.

“Ichimaru-taichō! Rangiku-san! How are you?” she chirped gaily.

“We’re alive, we’ve won the war, so we’re doing great,” Rangiku answered.

“I’m guessin’ yer here to visit Hitsugaya-taichō?” Gin asked.

Hinamori nodded.

“So are we,” he told her.

“Really?” Hinamori asked with raised eyebrows. “Both of you?”

“Yes,” Rangiku rolled her eyes. “Both of us.”

“I’m glad you’re willing to try to get along with him,” the smaller girl smiled.

“I can’t promise you anything more than that.”

“Thanks,” Hinamori said brightly.

“Well, here’s yer chance,” Gin said as the three of them stopped in front of Hitsugaya’s door.

Hinamori knocked. From within, Hitsugaya gruffly gave his permission to enter. She slid the door open and stepped inside, closely followed by the married couple.

“Hello, Hinamori,” Tōshirō greeted, and then looked at his two other guests. He nodded to them and simply said, “Ichimaru.”

“Are you always going to address us like we’re one person?” Rangiku deadpanned.

“Until I see evidence otherwise, yes,” their white-haired host rebutted.

“What’s with the big bucket of candy?” Hinamori asked curiously. Indeed, next to Tōshirō’s desk there was a sizable receptacle of confections.

“It’s from Ukitake,” he explained. “He wanted to give me a welcome-back gift as well as congratulations on my return to captaincy.”

“That’s nice of him,” the willowy girl smiled.

“I suppose,” he shrugged in return. “I just hope he doesn’t make a habit of it.”

“Don’t get yer hopes up,” Gin informed him. “He did the same thing to me when I was jus’ a kid.”

“Really?” Hinamori looked at the older man in surprise.

“Really,” Rangiku confirmed with a smirk. “You should have seen the look on his face the first time Ukitake handed him a sweet.”

“Ya weren’t there the first time he did that,” Gin pointed out. “Ya were still at the academy.”

“I know. I’m just telling them what Kyōraku told me.”

“Ah, like the time he told me he caught ya in the middle o’…”

“Gin! Not in front of the children!”

A tick mark appeared on Tōshirō’s temple at being referred to as a child, while Hinamori’s face went red as her mind came up with increasingly colorful ideas of what the mischievous captain had been talking about.

“Is there a reason why you are here, Ichimaru?” the annoyed prodigy inquired.

“Social call,” Gin grinned. “We wanted to check up on ya, see how ya were feelin’.”

“As you can see for yourself, I am fine. Now that you have ‘checked up’ on me, you may leave.”

“ _Tōshirō_ ,” Hinamori frowned at her friend.

“Yeah, jus’ cause yer element is ice don’t mean ya have to be so cold to yer friends,” the fox smirked.

Tōshirō narrowed his eyes at the reprimands.

“It’s just like when we were kids,” Rangiku noted with amusement. “I was always pulling Gin into social situations so he would learn how to interact with people. Looks like you’re going to have to do the same thing with Hitsugaya-taichō, Hinamori.”

“Ya know, Hitsugaya, if ya took advantage o’ bein’ adorable, ya could have most o’ the Gotei 13 eatin’ outta yer hand,” Gin speculated.

“I will consent to socializing,” Tōshirō said sternly. “I refuse to act ‘adorable’.”

“Well, that’ll probably happen whether ya want it or not,” the kitsune grinned impishly.

“Cold personality aside, it’s an undeniable fact that you are quite the cutie,” Rangiku grinned as she audaciously ruffled his hair.

“I thought you were scared of me,” Tōshirō growled as he lightly swatted the offending appendage away from his head.

“Well, I can’t say that I like you,” Rangiku explained with a smirk as she withdrew her hand. “But there’s no way I could really fear you after seeing you act so adorable with Hinamori! How could _anyone_ be scared of you after seeing you like that?”

Hitsugaya’s eye twitched. He desperately wanted to scream his frustration, but he had an image of mature professionalism and cool aloofness to uphold. On second thought, he had been forced to have that reputation because he had been working for Aizen. He had spent decades keeping the façade of cold-hearted rationalism as a front. He had _earned_ a good angry outburst.

“ _ICHIMARU!”_

He didn’t know why, but it felt so _right_ to holler that.

* * *

 **Author’s Note:** Yeah, sorry for making you all think that I actually killed off Hitsugaya. To be honest, I actually was pretty close to genuinely killing him or Starrk off. The three endings I had planned out were: Hitsugaya live but Starrk die; Starrk live but Hitsugaya die, and this version, in which both live. The reason I seriously considered the former two reasons was because “Bleach” is already so infamous for not killing off characters. But on the other hand, I did want to keep this fanfic to be overall on the lighter side, so I surrendered to my fondness to both characters and allowed them to live. I feel justified in having AGNH-Hitsugaya survive his injuries because they were less severe than canon Gin’s injuries were (a single slash across the torso versus a slash across the torso, an arm torn off, a stab through the chest, and being thrown through a building).

The idea that Gin was the one who saved Rukia as a baby in the Rukongai is one I got from Tomas the Betrayer in his fanfic, “Hammered Down,” and I used it with his permission.

I know that Tōshirō yelling “Ichimaru!” is not the same as “Matsumoto!” but I couldn’t resist.

This is also essentially the final chapter to “A Grudge Not Held,” my longest story to date. I may or may not continue on and do the Vandenreich arcs, but if I do, it won’t be until after Bleach is finished for good. I might also post bonus chapters every now and then, snippets from other moments in this timeline that did not make it into the main story, or perhaps write a prequel on Gin’s life leading up the Soul Society Arc (basically a more detailed account of what I covered in the first chapter). However, this story is, for now, classified as “Complete.”

I’d like to give special thanks to my Beta **Tomas the Betrayer** , who was of great help in editing and polishing this story.

I also give my gratitude to all the people who posted reviews, both great and small: **haeye** , **The10Espada99** , **Sora Nadeshiko** , **ebo372** , Raven’s Shadow, Elise, Carol, **ImSeriousBro** , **darkling59** , **JulieDoo** , **TykkiMikk** , **PaintTheAlienPink** , **The Lord of War** , **AKissAndAGunshot** , **4fireking** , **TakaSasuke** , **Nnix Ame** , **skymaster23** , **Coathooks** , **xXxLKxXx** , **Von Remington** , **Boar Rushes Down The Mountain** , **Shen an Calhar** , **Kopaka777** , **Chiruka** , **ultimatemh** , **amado15** , **WDW** , **BiblioMatsuri** , and all anonymous guests.

The compliments will be enjoyed, the critiques will be appreciated, and the flames will be used to toast marshmallows.

Have a Happy New Year!

* * *

**Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide**

Yamamoto’s New Standards of Cleaning:

_Rule #1: When retrieving an item you left at the barracks…_

Ichimaru Gin stopped in the middle of the path, realizing that he had just forgotten to bring a bucket along to help paint Rukia’s quarters in the Thirteenth Division.

He pondered. A return trip back to the barracks would waste precious time. Well, only one way to settle this.

With a declaration of “Kamishini no Yari,” Gin carefully aimed his sword through buildings, adjusting it back and forth accordingly, until he felt it hook on the desired item in question at last.. As the bucket returned, several walls collapsed in the wake of the serpent’s path.

When it came back, there was an umbrella dangling on its tip.

"Nuts," he cursed. "Oh, well, one more time."

Again Kamishini no Yari exploded through the Seireitei. This time it returned with Yachiru hugging the blade tightly. She lifted her head and beamed at him. "Again! Again!"

"Dang it," Gin muttered.

Several missed attempts later, there was a small collection of various unrelated items growing at his feet that Yachiru was happily playing with. At last Kamishini no Yari retracted bearing the desired bucket.

"Sweet," Gin grinned, and strode off swinging his prize while whistling a merry tune.

Behind him, approximately half the cityscape collapsed in the wake of the serpent's path.

_NO BANKAI!_

_Rule #2: When shredding obsolete files…_

Kuchiki Byakuya sniffed in disdain at the room full of mountains upon mountains of paperwork. These were all redundant and obsolete files that were slated to be destroyed to make room for new mountains upon mountains of paperwork. The staggering piles would take far too long in his tastes to destroy through burning in the official way.

He almost let a smile escape when he remembered Senbonzakura Kageyoshi.

A few minutes later, all that was left of the building was a pile of rubble and a very satisfied Kuchiki who had perhaps been spending too much time with the Eleventh Division captain.

_ NO BANKAI! _

_Rule #3: When disciplining heavy, lazy, embarrassing subordinates..._

Soifon had had _enough_ of her overweight excuse of a second-in-command Ōmaeda. Instead of helping her tidy up the office, he was slacking off and eating snacks! He was an embarrassment to the Gotei 13!

Engaging in a rare moment of impulsive action, she brought out Jakuhō Raikōben and aimed it at the oblivious lieutenant still munching.

One explosion later, all that was left of the Second Division was a crater, and a couple hundred dazed ninjas.

**_ NO BANKAI! _ **

* * *

**AO3 Commentary:** You know, I bet I could write a whole series of omake on the various captains breaking the rule of “NO BANKAI!”

I also have to credit the idea of the reference to Ōmaeda as heavy, lazy, embarrassing subordinate to a comment on the YouTube video of the original omake, though the person who made that comment was in favor of Bankai. “Yes, Soifon, we all understand.”

Tomas the Betrayer’s “Hammered Down” was one of the earliest “Bleach” fanfics I read, and it was a privilege to have him beta-read my works. If you ever go onto Fanfiction.net, that’s one I highly recommend.

I had to laugh on the first comment on this story on AO3, FETHJJ GYHHJ comments how Gin is “like saving stranger babies nice,” and I was like, “wait, did this guy read this on FFN?” I hope they managed to stick around and read this chapter to see how they called it; even if technically, it was only one specific baby.

Hopefully, the lack of “Major Character Death” warning to this story served as a subtle tip-off that Hitsugaya lived without it being an explicit spoiler.

And to those who thought I would portray Gin as being better than Hitsugaya at everything… well, look who survived trying to backstab Aizen, and who didn’t.

In hindsight, one of things I wonder if I did wrong was make Rangiku’s reaction to Tōshirō too exaggerated, that I made her too unreasonably scared of him. I did it partly to mirror Rukia’s fear of Gin, and partly to contrast the good comradery they had in canon, but I wonder if Rangiku should have had a better disposition towards Tōshirō, on the grounds that she does have experience dealing with socially distant and off-putting individuals. Then again, I would have missed the opportunity to have an ironic scene where Gin is the one to convince Rangiku to socialize with someone.

On the other hand, Rangiku’s attempts to be friendly with Tōshirō could have been an interesting contrast to Gin’s “teasing” of Rukia, and perhaps even have her joke about wanting to adopt him (which would be doubly funny if you’ve heard of the crack theory that Tōshirō is actually Gin and Rangiku’s biological son). If so, Gin and Rangiku could comment on they both seemed interested in adopting ice-themed kids.

Well, now that the story’s complete, any criticisms and comments on Tōshirō in this story I will now address without having to worry about spoilers.

And despite the weaknesses and flaws that have been addressed and discussed, I still feel pride in this work. It was my first novel-length fanfic, I put a lot of thought and effort into it, I had an fanfic author I respected be a Beta reader, and the story overall has received a positive response over the years. One person even took the time to translate it into Russian, and another put a few scenes from the first chapter into manga format. So I feel validated in thinking that I at least succeeded in my goal of showing a less evil Gin, and how his life would have been like if he had never joined Aizen.

There will be a couple more chapters I will post in a separate work, each one being an independent one-shot set in the AGNH universe. Should I get around to covering the TYBW arc as I hope to, it will also be a separate work.

And one goal I have when writing that story is to put greater focus on Tōshirō, flesh out why he joined Aizen, how he’s adjusted to rejoining the Gotei 13, and the reactions of the other characters to him. In hindsight, this makes me even more glad I decided to have Tōshirō survive canon Gin’s fate, as a chance for me to make up for the neglect I gave his character depth in this story.

Thanks to all who left kudos on this story, and special mentions to everyone who left comments: FETHJJ GYHHJ, Mystic Bluefrost, Insecuriosity, Tinko the Wolf, Noiram ARDA, and LadySelenay.


End file.
